British schoolgirl, 8, shot dead in Jamaica - The Times (subscription)

An eight-year-old British schoolgirl has been shot dead while on a family holiday in Jamaica after a gunman opened fire on a shop.

Imani Green was with relatives in her cousin's shop in the rural north coast town of Duncans, Trelawney, when a man entered the store and an argument broke out on Friday evening.

According to police the gunman shot at several people in the shop, fatally hitting the schoolgirl and leaving three others with bullet wounds.

Imani, whose family live in Balham, south London, died later in hospital. Three other people are being treated for their injuries.

Police believe the shooting was a gang-related reprisal for an earlier gun attack against a friend of the family member who runs the grocery store.

Imani, who suffered from blood disease sickle cell anaemia, travelled to the quiet coastal town with her mother and teenage sister for a family holiday in the Caribbean, arriving just after Christmas. They are understood to have been staying with relatives and are thought to have been planning to return to the UK at the end of this month.

Imani's grandmother Sandra Fisher told The Sun last night that the little girl's father Richard, who was back at home in London, was "inconsolable" last night.

"He had to go to hospital. He's in a bad way. Imani was his life," Ms Fisher told the paper.

Ms Fisher, 54, said Imani's sister took the school girl to hospital in a taxi: "We found her in a pool of blood. It was horrible."

The British Foreign Office confirmed the death of a British national in Jamaica on Friday, January 11, and said it is providing consular assistance to the family.