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A gunman killed at least four and took as many as 41 people hostage at an upstate New York immigrant counselling centre this morning.
At about 10.30am local time, a gunman parked a vehicle at the rear of the American Civic Association building in Binghamton, New York, blocking the door. He entered the building and opened fire on people assembled for English classes, citizenship counselling and other services for immigrants. Survivors of the initial assault fled to a basement room and more than a dozen hid in a closet, WBNG television reported.
Details of the shooting remained hazy in the hours after the assault, including the death toll and the number of hostages, as investigators tried to get in contact with people inside the building. Police sources, speaking on background, said as many as 12 or 13 people had been killed, according to a reporter with WNBF radio, who described the gunman as being of Asian descent, and in his 20s.
Between 20 and 40 people were held hostage, and some hostages had been released. At least four people were taken out on stretchers, and as many as 10 ambulances fled to the scene.
"The scene within minutes turned into one just flooded with police," WNBF radio news director Bob Joseph said.
The gunman was believed still to be inside the building, and emergency dispatchers were in telephone contact with people inside, WBNG television reported. Binghamton mayor Matthew Ryan told the Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin newspaper that the man bore a high-powered rifle.
Heavily armed local, county and state police were surrounding the building in Binghamton, a city of about 45,000 people, roughly three hours north-west of New York City, and an FBI hostage negotiation team was en route to the scene.
The city, which has shrunk in population as its industrial base declined in recent years, is home to a large campus of the State University of New York.
Police had locked down a nearby high school and told nearby businesses to keep customers inside.
Linda Miller, a spokeswoman at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Binghamton, said that a university student was being treated at the emergency room but said she didn't know the nature of the injuries.
"We're on full alert anticipating we're going to get additional casualties," Miller told the Associated Press.
The area is in a commercial strip near the Chenango river. It is unclear whether the gunman had targeted the centre because it aids immigrants. Anti-immigrant animus has lead to individual assaults across the country, but immigrants have not previously been targeted for deadly violence en mass.
The United States, which has some of the laxest gun control laws of the developed world, has for years been beset by seemingly random mass shootings.
Last week, a gunman killed eight people in a North Carolina nursing home. Last month, an Alabama man killed ten people, including several members of his family, before turning the gun on himself. The largest mass shooting in American history occurred in April 2007, when a mentally ill student at Virginia Tech University killed 32 people and wounded many others before killing himself.
This month marks the tenth anniversary of the killing of 13 at Columbine High School in Colorado by two disgruntled students.
Many states have few strictures on gun ownership beyond barring convicted felons and the severely mentally ill from possession firearms.
Gun control largely fizzled as a national political issue, as Democrats, who have in the past promoted stricter gun laws, have bowed to the well-organised pro-gun opposition. The Obama administration supports the renewal of an expired federal ban on assault weapons.
By Daniel Nasaw in Washington
At least 4 killed in Binghamton, New York shooting | World news | guardian.co.uk
At about 10.30am local time, a gunman parked a vehicle at the rear of the American Civic Association building in Binghamton, New York, blocking the door. He entered the building and opened fire on people assembled for English classes, citizenship counselling and other services for immigrants. Survivors of the initial assault fled to a basement room and more than a dozen hid in a closet, WBNG television reported.
Details of the shooting remained hazy in the hours after the assault, including the death toll and the number of hostages, as investigators tried to get in contact with people inside the building. Police sources, speaking on background, said as many as 12 or 13 people had been killed, according to a reporter with WNBF radio, who described the gunman as being of Asian descent, and in his 20s.
Between 20 and 40 people were held hostage, and some hostages had been released. At least four people were taken out on stretchers, and as many as 10 ambulances fled to the scene.
"The scene within minutes turned into one just flooded with police," WNBF radio news director Bob Joseph said.
The gunman was believed still to be inside the building, and emergency dispatchers were in telephone contact with people inside, WBNG television reported. Binghamton mayor Matthew Ryan told the Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin newspaper that the man bore a high-powered rifle.
Heavily armed local, county and state police were surrounding the building in Binghamton, a city of about 45,000 people, roughly three hours north-west of New York City, and an FBI hostage negotiation team was en route to the scene.
The city, which has shrunk in population as its industrial base declined in recent years, is home to a large campus of the State University of New York.
Police had locked down a nearby high school and told nearby businesses to keep customers inside.
Linda Miller, a spokeswoman at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Binghamton, said that a university student was being treated at the emergency room but said she didn't know the nature of the injuries.
"We're on full alert anticipating we're going to get additional casualties," Miller told the Associated Press.
The area is in a commercial strip near the Chenango river. It is unclear whether the gunman had targeted the centre because it aids immigrants. Anti-immigrant animus has lead to individual assaults across the country, but immigrants have not previously been targeted for deadly violence en mass.
The United States, which has some of the laxest gun control laws of the developed world, has for years been beset by seemingly random mass shootings.
Last week, a gunman killed eight people in a North Carolina nursing home. Last month, an Alabama man killed ten people, including several members of his family, before turning the gun on himself. The largest mass shooting in American history occurred in April 2007, when a mentally ill student at Virginia Tech University killed 32 people and wounded many others before killing himself.
This month marks the tenth anniversary of the killing of 13 at Columbine High School in Colorado by two disgruntled students.
Many states have few strictures on gun ownership beyond barring convicted felons and the severely mentally ill from possession firearms.
Gun control largely fizzled as a national political issue, as Democrats, who have in the past promoted stricter gun laws, have bowed to the well-organised pro-gun opposition. The Obama administration supports the renewal of an expired federal ban on assault weapons.
By Daniel Nasaw in Washington
At least 4 killed in Binghamton, New York shooting | World news | guardian.co.uk
