US gunman kills three in Kansas

KANSAS CITY: A gunman killed three people on Thursday at a manufacturing plant in central Kansas where he worked and wounded 14 others, in a shooting spree spanning several miles that ended when a lone officer killed the suspect, authorities said.

While many of his victims were coworkers, overall the attacker appears to have opened fire at random, said Harvey County Sheriff T. Walton of the mass killing that struck fear in Hesston and the town’s major employer, a lawnmower manufacturing company.

"This is a horrible situation my friends, just terrible," Walton said at a news conference, adding at least five of the 14 wounded were in critical condition.

Some of the shooter’s motives had emerged, but the sheriff declined to provide more details except to say the attack was "not terrorism. "There were some things that triggered this particular individual," he said.

The Kansas shootings come after a Michigan man who worked as a driver for car-hailing service Uber was charged with killing six people during a shooting rampage this past weekend. In December, a husband and wife shot to death 14 people at a workplace holiday party in San Bernardino, California.

The couple, who died in a shootout with police, were inspired by the militant group Islamic State, FBI officials said.

A number of mass shootings in the United States have elevated gun control as a campaign issue in the November US presidential election.

The Kansas attacker, who was armed with a 223-caliber assault-style rifle and a pistol, was driving a car when he began his attack about 14-km southeast of Hesston in the town of Newton, where he shot a man in a truck, Walton said.