Britain’s youngest victim of gun crime has taken her first steps after being shot in the chest while dancing in her uncle’s shop.

Thusha Kamaleswaran, from Hainault, was five when she suffered spine damage during the incident in March 2011.

After spending a year in hospital, enduring multiple operations and being told by doctors she would never walk again, she has now taken her first steps after months of intense physio.

Now seven, Thusha, of Tomswood Hill said she has dreams of dancing again and becoming a doctor so she can help others.

Speaking to ITV News on Monday, she said: “My reasons for wanting to walk again are playing with my friends and travelling the world.”

She added: “They said I wouldn’t walk, but now they say I can walk again.”

Nathaniel Grant, who fired the shot in the Stockwell shop was jailed for a minimum of 17 years, while fellow gang members Kazeem Kolawole and Anthony McCalla were jailed for 14 years each in April last year.