US: Up to 13 feared dead in small NY town gun rampage
04 Apr 2009 4:10 AM
NEW YORK, April 3 AFP - As many as 13 people may have been killed on Friday in a rampage by a gunman believed to be holding dozens of hostages at a civic centre in the upstate New York town of Binghamton, local radio reported.
"A dozen or more may have died in the last two hours," Bob Joseph, news director of local WNBF Radio, told CNN, quoting sources.
Reports said the gunman may have also taken between 20 and about 40 hostages in the civic centre in the small city 217km northwest of New York city, near the border with Pennsylvania.
Police armed with automatic rifles surrounded the building as officers carried out several stretchers, CNN television footage showed.
The local Press and Sun-Bulletin newspaper reported that at least four people were shot and that 41 hostages were in the building -- 15 in a closet and 26 in the boiler room.
According to Joseph, the guman was believed to have parked a car so that it blocked the back door of the civic centre, preventing escape.
