New York: A Gujarati woman was shot in the face and left critically injured in an attempted armed robbery in the US state of South Carolina.

Mradulaben Patel was the co-owner of a gas station was working as clerk of a store in Powdersville when the attack took place on Thursday night. Police have sought help in identifying the attacker, Fox Carolina reported.

The report quoted Patel’s friend Dilip Shah as saying that she had surgery yesterday and the doctors are monitoring her. He said he could not make out the reason for the shooting.

“She never had any problem with any customers,” Shah said.

Deputies said the video shows a man walking into the store and they said he bought a pack of cigars. Authorities are reviewing the surveillance footage that showed the suspect, moments before, asking for cigars and then shooting Patel without taking any money.

Investigators said they believe the man in the video shot Patel during an attempted robbery. A man named Michael Wheat saw Patel lying on the floor as he walked into the store late at night and called the police.

Customers of the shop remembered Patel as a friendly woman.

“She always asked how everybody was, their day was, (and) she asked how my daughter was every day that I came in here,” Shalynn Zarczynski, a frequent customer of Patel’s, said.