The suspected shooter was found dead at the scene. Authorities believe he acted alone.
A gunman who went on a rampage in Texas, USA, killed at least eight people at a mall in Allen, Dallas, authorities said. Seven people are also said to have been wounded.
– We found seven dead people at the scene. We transported nine people to the hospital — two of those transported have since died, said Allen’s fire chief Jonathan Boyd.
According to the AFP news agency, the suspected shooter himself died at the scene. Authorities believe he acted alone. According to the news channel CNN, the youngest of the victims treated by the medical staff were five years old. NBC News, on the other hand, says that a treatment facility has received treatment for victims who are between the ages of 5 and 61.
The shooting took place at the sprawling Allen Premium Outlets shopping center. The first reports of the shooting were received on Saturday around half past four in the afternoon local time, i.e. before midnight Finnish time. Based on the video images circulating online, the shooter got out of the car in the parking lot of the shopping center, opened fire on people nearby and caused panic in the shopping center.
Allen Police Chief Brian Harvey according to the police, there was a police officer on other duty in the shopping center when the shooting started.
– He heard shots, went towards the shots, attacked the suspect and neutralized the suspect, the police chief said.
The shooter’s identity has not been released. Governor of Texas Greg Abbott called what happened an “unspeakable tragedy”.
The suspect acted alone
Police were previously said to be looking for a possible second suspect, but according to CNN, authorities now believe the suspect acted alone.
“The shooter is dead, and law enforcement officials have told me there was only one shooter, they’ve now confirmed that,” the Republican Texas congressman Keith Self told CNN.
– There are now several victims, but I will leave this for the law enforcement authorities to report. Police believe they have identified the suspected shooter’s vehicle, which the bomb squad is investigating just in case, a source told CNN earlier.
During the beginning of the year, already a couple of hundred mass shootings
The United States has more firearms than people and has the highest rate of gun deaths among the developed world. There have been more than 40,000 firearm deaths in the United States recently, but less than half of them are homicides.
According to the Gun Violence Archive, which statistics gun violence, there have already been a couple of hundred mass shootings in the United States this year. The site defines a mass shooting as an incident where at least four people have been injured or killed.