Relative flying to Jordan to be with shot New Zealand tourist

A New Zealand woman injured in a shooting in Jordan will stay in hospital in Amman for several days.

The woman, who has not been named, is a 28-year-old Australian resident and has been able to speak to her family from her hospital bed.

Details of her injuries have not be released by New Zealand authorities, but the Jordanian news agency Petra reported yesterday that she had been moved to Al Hussein Medical Centre for neurological surgery.

It is understood a family member is travelling to Jordan to be at her side.

The woman was seriously injured in a shooting at a Roman amphitheatre, when a lone gunman opened fire.

A British tourist was killed in the attack and other tourists and a local police officer were injured.

Three other New Zealanders at the scene were not hurt.

Helen Tunnah, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said all four Kiwis had been offered assistance by staff from the office of New Zealand's honorary consul in Jordan, British Embassy officials and Jordanian authorities.

They were on an organised tour which included Jordan.

The uninjured three are understood to be considering whether to continue the tour or head home.

Prime Minister Helen Clark said yesterday she was deeply concerned at the attack.

Meanwhile, Australian tourist Ashlea Blair has spoken of seeing her British friend shot dead.

Jordanian officials have named the dead man as 30-year-old Christopher Stokes.

Ms Blair, who suffered a flesh wound to her hip in the shooting, said her tour group was preparing to leave the amphitheatre when the gunman began firing.

"I thought it was firecrackers, someone had firecrackers and even when I turned around and saw the guy shooting at us the first thing that went through my head was - it's just a joke," she told ABC Radio. "I was up the top of the stairs so the people down the bottom got most of it [the gunfire].

"A man came up behind us and started to shoot and all I can remember is one of my friends falling over and then a really nice man from a shop came and told us to hide in his store and we were just hearing the shooting," she said.

"I could just see Chris just pale with ... he was pale to begin with, but he was just white, with blood all over his chest."

Ms Blair's father Keith said his daughter called from Prince Hamzah Hospital in Amman to say she was alright.

"It was a while before she said she had been shot," he told the Herald from the family home in Harcourt, about 110km north-west of Melbourne.

"It seems she was shot in the hip and the bullet came out. We think possibly a second bullet was found in her bag but didn't actually hit her."

The Blair family last saw Ashlea in February last year when she returned home and they holidayed in Auckland.

She has been living in London since then with her Australian boyfriend, who works as a merchant banker.

Mr Blair said his daughter would return to London. Jordanian security forces identified the gunman as Nabil Ahmad Jaaoura, 37, a married blacksmith with five children from the industrial town of Zarqa, near Amman, the home town of slain al-Qaeda frontman Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.