The nine-year-old girl shot dead when a gunman entered her home chased another man into her home and fired “with complete disregard” for anyone else in the property has been named as Olivia Pratt-Korbel.

Merseyside police named the child and said her family were “absolutely devastated, inconsolable and heartbroken” following the incident on Monday night.

Speaking at a press conference at the force’s headquarters in Liverpool on Tuesday, chief constable Serena Kennedy appealed for anyone with information to come forward, adding “now is not the time to remain tight-lipped”.

Detective Chief Superintendent Mark Kameen, head of investigations at Merseyside Police, said the gunman, who was wearing a black balaclava and black gloves, forced his way into the building as Olivia’s mother Cheryl tried to close the door.

The girl was found with a gunshot injury to the chest when officers attended the scene at around 10pm on Monday, and was taken in a critical condition to hospital, where she died.

Her mother was also injured in the shooting and was taken to hospital with a gunshot wound to her arm.

Speaking at a press conference following the shooting, Merseyside Police Chief Constable Serena Kennedy said: “On arrival, our officers could see just how poorly Olivia was and they rushed her to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, where, despite the best efforts of medical staff, she sadly died. Her mum was taken to hospital by colleagues from the North West Ambulance Service.

“This is a shocking and appalling attack which will reverberate around our communities, and I want to take this opportunity again to appeal to anybody who knows who was responsible for this attack to please come forward and give us those names.

“We need to find all who are responsible for this. Not just the gunman, we need to find who supplied the weapon and who arranged this terrible incident.

“Forensic experts are at the scene at this moment in time, conducting house-to-house enquiries and officers are reviewing CCTV footage to establish and identify who is responsible.”

The killing came 15 years to the day after 11-year-old Rhys Jones was shot dead in Croxteth.