A 13-year-old girl is lucky to be alive after getting caught in the line of fire while talking to a group of friends inside a garage in Sydney's west.
The teenager was shot in the leg in what police believe was a targeted drive-by attack on a home on Constance St in Guildford on Tuesday night.
It's understood a silver SUV pulled up near the driveway before a number of shots were fired from the passenger side into the garage, which had its door up.
The victim and at least four other young girls were inside chatting at the time, NSW Police say.
The girl was taken to the Children's Hospital at Westmead where she remains in a serious but stable condition.
Her mother told the Daily Telegraph that her daughter had had surgery and was in intensive care.
“She was in the wrong place at the wrong time, I don’t know why people drove past and shot her,” the woman said.
"This is an atrocious crime," Superintendent Matt Appleton told reporters on Wednesday.
"It's a cowardly act for someone to fire into a house in any circumstance, but then to put children at risk is hard to describe in words. She was very lucky."
Police don't believe it was a random attack, but are unsure who the intended target was.
There was nothing to indicate it was the teenage girl herself although that was a possibility, Supt Appleton said.
The teenager did not live at the home but was just visiting.
"The more salient line of inquiry at this stage is to do with the premises," Supt Appleton said.
A neighbour told the Nine Network they heard about "five or six pops" followed by screaming and sirens.
"There were just sounds of screams ... it was pandemonium," another local said.
Police have called in detectives from across the region to help with the "very large scale" investigation.
