Elzbieta Pniewska thought of every possible reason why the telephone conversation with her sister had ended so abruptly.

The battery must be flat, she imagined, or the signal between Poland and London was playing up, or Magda may have dropped and broken her phone.

Elzbieta knew that something was wrong, but it was not until her sister’s fiancé called the Pniewska family home in Brzeg, southern Poland, a few hours later that she discovered just how wrong things were. Radek Lipka’s voice was strained with emotion as he told her: “Magda’s dead.”

It was then that Elzbieta realised that the noises she had heard when she was talking to her sister were gunshots, one of which had killed her sister. Unable to continue the conversation, Mr Lipka asked Elzbieta if she could break the terrible news to her parents and sister.

How worried should we be about gun crime?

Serious gun crime is concentrated in particular parts of England; internationally, the country has a low death rate from guns

Background

• Factfile: teenagers gunned down across UK

• Three murders in four days in South London

• We Shall Overcome, protesters sing at peace vigil

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The family spoke yesterday of their desolation at the loss of a daughter they described as “the flower of a rose, a ray of the sun and a wind full of life”.

Miss Pniewska, 26, a care worker at a BUPA nursing home near her flat in New Cross, South London, was walking home from work on Tuesday evening when a gun battle erupted around her. She died from a single bullet wound to the head.

She had been caught in crossfire between two gunmen and became the latest innocent person to fall victim to Britain’s gun crime. Two men and a woman arrested in connection with the shooting were released without charge yesterday. A third man has been bailed to return for further questioning. Police have appealed for witnesses.

When told of Miss Pniewska’s death on Tuesday evening, her father collapsed and spent the night in hospital.

Elzbieta, 35, recalled the last moments of the telephone conversation. “I was speaking, saying, ‘Magda, Magda, what’s happening? Where are you? Hello, hello, hello’. Then the line went dead. I am told that she still had the phone in her hand and that another bullet knocked it away.”

Barbara Pniewska, the dead woman’s mother, said: “We thought that she would ring back any minute and say that her battery had gone flat. But she did not phone back. She did not answer her home phone either.”

Mis Pniewska’s other sister, Marzena, 32, said: “Elzbieta was a witness by telephone to Magda’s murder – she just did not realise it at the time. Now she cannot get the awful sound of a gun out of her head and keeps imagining the phone lying there in our sister’s hand as she calls her name.”

The family said that Miss Pniewska and Mr Lipka, 25, had been happy together. They had spent the previous weekend in Paris, talking of their plans to marry and return to Poland to start a family.

Mrs Pniewska, 55, said: “I always tried to persuade her to come back home, and recently she indicated that she agreed with me. We thought that it would probably be some time next year after the wedding. I asked why she was staying there [Britain]. I remember the last time I spoke to her and I said, ‘Come home daughter, come home to your family. We miss you’.”

Marzena added: “I know they were thinking about a baby. Radek dreamt of being a father, and Magda would have been a wonderful mother. I saw how she looked after my children and was in no doubt that she loved kids.

“Magda was so happy. She told me about the weekend before. She had spent it together with Radek in Paris. They celebrated their sixth anniversary together and were planning their wedding. Her head was full of thoughts about it.”

The murdered woman intended to return to Brzeg for Christmas and a long-planned family reunion.

Her mother said: “This Christmas was going to be our first family get-together for three years. All my children had made a special effort and we were really looking forward to celebrating together. I had already been imagining what it would be like with her and the grandchildren.”

Mrs Pniewska has a shoebox full of the dozens of postcards sent by her daughter since she moved to London four years ago. Each one ended with the message: “I love you, Mummy.”

Tipping them on to a coffee table, Mrs Pniewska said: “Have a look at how much she wrote to me. She always chose the most lovely postcards of London for her mother. She was such a good daughter.

“She wrote so much. She never forgot any important dates and was always thinking of us even though we were so far away.

“She had gone to London for a better life. I still cannot believe it. No, not my daughter, it is not possible. How can this happen?”

Detective Chief Inspector Tony Boughton, who is leading the murder inquiry, appealed for help in tracing a red Volkswagen Polo from which one of the gunmen opened fire.

Mr Boughton said: “Magda was caught in the crossfire, an innocent victim who worked in the care home opposite and who was making her way home along her usual route.

“Witnesses have come forward and we thank them. However, we believe there are many more people who are yet to come forward who may have witnessed the tragic murder of Magda, and I would urge them to do so.”

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