A Polish care worker shot in the head when she walked into a gangland fight in London was talking to her sister in Poland on her mobile phone when she was hit.

{mosimage}Magda Pniewska’s sister listened in horror, from their home town of Brzeg, as two gunshots rang out before the line cut out. She spent the next hours trying to get a reply.

Miss Pniewska, 26, who left Poland about four years ago to take up opportunities when her native country joined the European Union, had become another crime statistic.

She was killed when two young men traded gunshots from 50 yards apart near her home in New Cross, southeast London, on Monday evening.

Moments earlier Miss Pniewska had closed the door behind her at the BUPA nursing home where she worked with mentally ill patients to walk 150 yards home to the flat she shared with her Polish boyfriend.

As she approached a set of steps on the housing estate, where one of the men was standing, the gun battle started. She had no time to take cover and was hit in the head by a bullet. She was pronounced dead at King’s College Hospital.

An old friend, Tomasz Dragan, 26, told The Times last night that her family was “in deep sadness and cannot believe media reports”.