A 5-year-old girl was struck in the ankle by a bullet in a hail of gunfire Monday evening in Wilmington’s Little Italy neighborhood, according to accounts from police and neighbors.

One resident who was walking north on Lincoln Street, near the shooting scene on the 1900 block of 5th Street, said he heard at least seven shots just after 5 p.m. He did not see the shooter, he said.

“I heard boom (pause), boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom,” said the neighbor, who declined to provide his name.

The neighbor then rounded the corner onto 5th Street, where he saw the victim, he said.

“She was bleeding and she was crying,” he said.

Arriving police officers were directed to a house on 5th Street where the girl was found with a “gunshot graze wound to her lower, right leg area,” according to a statement from the Wilmington Police Department.

The child was treated at her home by New Castle County Paramedics and taken to St. Francis Hospital in good condition.

The shooter fled 5th Street, prompting an hour-long manhunt between Lincoln and Scott streets, about two blocks from the initial shooting scene. A police helicopter circled the area for more than an hour as police searched the backyards of houses, which face Scott Street.

Between 5 and 7:30 p.m., segments of 5th, Lincoln and Scott streets were closed with crime scene tape. Dozens of neighbors from porches and from behind windows watched the various police scenes unfold.

Anthony Truono, from Newport, was arriving at a house on Lincoln Street a little after 5 p.m. when he saw police officers running, he said.

“All I know is (the shooter) is somewhere between these two buildings (on Lincoln Street) and some little 5-year-old girl got shot,” he said. “I’m not even from this area but shootings are just horrible, especially on a holiday.”

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Another neighbor who lives along Lincoln Street said she came outside of her house just as the shooter was fleeing next to the Prince of Piedmont Lodge, which faces Lincoln.

The incident was the fourth shooting in Wilmington during the Labor Day weekend. Two were fatal.

There have been at least 144 victims of shootings in the city in 2017, with 24 fatalities, according to records kept by The News Journal. There were 145 shooting victims during all of 2016 – 21 of those were fatal.

The suspect, who remains on the loose, is a black male and between 18 to 25 years old, according to police.

Anyone with information should call Wilmington Police Detective Jordan Merced at 302-576-3620. Information may also be left on the Delaware Crime Stoppers Tipline at 1-800-TIP-3333, or email www.delawarecrimestoppers.org. Citizens can also text a tip to NIXLE at 888777.

Contact Karl Baker at kbaker@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2329. Follow him on Twitter @kbaker6.