GARDAÍ IN Donegal investigating a shooting that injured an eight-year-old girl said yesterday she was lucky to be alive.
It was the third gun attack on the same family within two years. In one previous attack shots were fired into a four-wheel-drive vehicle outside a house at The Knather, two miles from Ballyshannon.
Another house owned by a member of the same family on the other side of the town was hit by gunfire last year. Nobody was injured in either of these attacks.
In the latest incident, the girl received a flesh wound when a stream of bullets was fired into the rear of her grandparents' house on The Knather as they were getting her ready for bed.
Two bedrooms were riddled with bullets.
Neighbours said it sounded like a machine-gun was used in the attack on Friday, shortly before 10pm.
However, Garda ballistics experts have established it was not a machine-gun but a high-velocity weapon capable of discharging several bullets in rapid succession.
Gardaí were tight-lipped over the weekend on details of the attack, fearing escalation of a suspected feud involving a member of the family and republican dissidents. Nobody was arrested.
The girl's grandparents are retired business people in their 50s. Their son, the girl's father, was not in the house at the time of the attack.
The child was rushed to Sligo General Hospital, where she was still being treated last night. Her condition was said to be "stable".
A Garda source said: "The girl could have been killed. Her grandparents could also have been killed. Luckily for them they escaped physically unhurt but they are still very disturbed by the experience."
The girl, whose parents are separated, was on a visit from Dublin with her father.
Separately yesterday, gardaí were searching for a gunman who held up a filling station at Tullaghan, Co Leitrim, at around 10.35pm on Saturday.
The man, described as being 6ft and in his 30s, was armed with what is believed to have been a handgun and was masked.
He escaped with an undisclosed sum after demanding the till takings from two women employees at Duncarbery filling station. Nobody was injured.
The man is believed to have escaped on foot.