An eight-year-old British girl has been shot dead while on a family holiday in Jamaica.

Imani Green, from Balham in south London, was with relatives in a cafe in the north coast town of Duncans on Friday evening when an armed man entered and opened fire following an argument.

Imani, who had been on the island since 27 December, was shot twice – once in the head – and died on the way to hospital.

Three other people injured in the shooting were taken to hospital but are thought to be in a stable condition.

Imani's sister, Janella Parmer, told the BBC: "We heard gunshots. We ran outside and shouted 'Imani! Imani! Imani!'

"I picked her up off the ground and realised she was still breathing. I flagged down a car and they drove us to hospital."

Police told the BBC that there are a number of lines of inquiry, but one theory is that the shooting was in reprisal for an earlier gun attack.

Map of Jamaica.

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

Nick Davis, a BBC correspondent in Kingston, said Imani and her mother and sister had been staying with relatives in Duncans and were thought to have been planning to return to the UK at the end of this month.

He described Duncans as "a sleepy town and a backwater", adding that the shooting had "really come as a shock to that local community, [where] crime is pretty much unheard of".

Davis also said the area had the second lowest murder rate in Jamaica last year.

Peter Kellond, the British honorary consul for Montego Bay, told the BBC: "This is obviously a desperately sad event and we are providing consular support to the family and other relatives."

The country's national security minister, Peter Bunting, told the Jamaica Gleaner: "The senseless killing of a young, innocent child must outrage all well-thinking Jamaicans, and cause us to join our security forces in an intensified effort to rid our communities of criminals."