11 killed in shooting in Virginia

A least 11 people were killed and six wounded in a shooting at a government building complex in Virginia Beach in the US state of Virginia, police said Friday.

Police chief James Cervera said the gunman, a public utilities employee, was also killed and described him as “disgruntled.”

The shooting happened just after 4 p.m. (2000 UTC), when the gunman entered one of the buildings at the Virginia Beach municipal complex and “immediately began to indiscriminately fire on all of the victims,” Cervera said.

The Virginia Beach Police Department said earlier in a series of posts on Twitter that it was responding to an “active shooter situation” at building No. 2 of the town municipal center and advised the public to avoid the area.

It was not made immediately clear whether the gunman took his own life or was killed in an exchange of gunfire with police.

Speaking at the news conference alongside Cervera, Mayor Bobby Dyer said it was “the most devastating day in the history of Virginia Beach.”

Read more: 8 facts about gun control in the US

Victims hospitalized

Six patients from the scene were sent to hospitals in the region, according to a spokesman for the Sentara Healthcare system that runs the facilities. They did not elaborate on the condition of the patients.

A police officer was also among those who were struck by gunfire but survived.

Virginia Beach, which sits on the Atlantic coast at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, is the state’s most populous city with about 450,000 residents.

law/amp (AFP, dpa, Reuters)

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