An armed police officer desperately fought to save Olivia Pratt-Korbel by covering the gunshot wound to her chest with his hand, an inquest has heard.

Merseyside Police officers ‘scooped and ran’ with the nine-year-old after she was caught in the crossfire of an apparent attempted hit on a convicted burglar in Liverpool last Monday, August 22.

The schoolgirl tragically died after being gunned down by a masked man chasing the intended target, said to be Joseph Nee, into her home in Dovecot.

Senior Liverpool coroner Andre Rebello told Gerard Majella Courthouse today: ‘Armed response officers attended and a nine-year-old child, Olivia Pratt-Korbel, was discovered with a gunshot wound to her chest.

‘Police officers scooped and ran with Olivia to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in the back of a police car.

‘At approximately 10.15pm she was brought into the main entrance in the arms of a police officer.

‘The officer had covered the wound to her chest with his hand and she was noted to have a weak heart which had stopped prior to her arrival in hospital.’

Olivia went into cardiac arrest and despite ‘extensive efforts’ to resuscitate her, the decision was made to stop at 11.25am when she was confirmed dead, the coroner said.

Mr Rebello handled the the death of 11-year-old Rhys Jones in Croxteth, Liverpool, in 2007 – exactly 15 years to the day Olivia was shot dead.

He told of his shock that ‘society has not changed for the better’ as he opened the inquest.

‘Fifteen years ago I was the coroner in Liverpool and the death of Rhys was reported to me.

‘It is shocking that a nine-year-old little girl, with a full life in front of her, is shot anywhere, but to be shot in her own home, in the safety of her home, is heinous and unforgiving.’

Mr Rebello urged anyone who knows who is responsible for Olivia’s death to come forward and help the police.

‘There must be people in Liverpool, or elsewhere by now, who know precisely by what means Olivia died and who was responsible for her death,’ he told the inquest.

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‘Olivia’s death will not just affect her immediate family and friends but also school communities, church communities, not just in the Knotty Ash and Dovecot areas of Liverpool but the whole city, Merseyside, and I know right across this country people are shocked by Olivia’s death.

‘I understand Merseyside Police would be very grateful for anyone with any information who could bring some knowledge to the circumstances in which Olivia came by her death, no matter how insignificant that information may be.’

Olivia’s body has now been released to the family to be buried.

A post mortem examination found the medical cause of her death was a gunshot wound to the chest, the coroner said.

The inquest has been adjourned until January 4 next year.

Nee, 35, and another unnamed man, aged 36, were arrested after the shooting.

The pair will be isolated from other prisoners amid fears they could be killed in a bid to silence them, it has been claimed.

‘The guys that ordered this shooting do not want either of these men to talk as they know they are facing big charges if the cops get any evidence,’ a source told The Sun.

‘They have a lot of contacts inside and outside prison so Nee and the suspected hitman will need to watch their backs. Dead people don’t talk.’

A family believed to be connected to the intended victim left an RIP note for the ‘beautiful’ nine-year-old.

Police received 280 tip-offs about organised crime following Olivia’s murder.

More than 150 people have been arrested but her killer remains at large.

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