Boy, 6, killed in food festival shooting

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Three people, including a six-year-old boy, have been killed in a massacre at garlic festival in California, with many others injured.

Police are yet to comment on the number of casualties, but a local politician said at least three people had died. Some reports suggest as many as a dozen have been wounded.

A gunman has also been shot and killed by police bringing the total number of deaths to four. It is unclear if there is a second gunman on the loose.

Scot Smithee, chief of police for Gilroy, confirmed one gunman was dead.

“The suspect was shot and killed,” he said, adding police believed the gunman, and a suspected second gunman or supporter, came into the festival via a creek which borders the parking area.

It was thought they used “some sort of a tool to cut through the fence”, Sky News reported.

Dramatic footage from the scene shows people screaming and running for their lives, many holding hands as they ran from the gunfire.

US President Donald Trump urged people to be “careful and safe” because “reports are that shooter has not yet been apprehended”.

A city councillor confirmed the death toll to Associated Press but warned they were “preliminary figures”.

Three hours after the shooting the gunman has still not been located and police urged people to stay away from the scene. There was no information on possible suspects; some witnesses reported seeing two shooters.

Seven people have been hospitalised, but the severity of their injuries were unknown. Hospitals in the area expect more victims, local media report.

“What’s going on?” a woman can be heard asking on one video, which shows the sheer panic that broke out when the “rapid fire” shooting began.

As many as 15 loud shots could be heard, with some witnesses saying they initially thought they were made by fireworks.

“Who’d shoot up a garlic festival?” one woman can be heard saying in the chaotic minutes that followed.

A witness told NBC she saw a white man in his early to mid-30s firing a rifle that was “able to shoot three to four shots a second.”

“It was just rapid firing,” Julissa Contreras said. “I could see him shooting in just every direction. He wasn’t aiming at anyone specifically. It was just left to right, right to left. … He definitely was prepared for what he was doing.”

Others said the gunman was armed with a rifle and was dressed in some kind of vest and camouflage fatigues.