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Gun attack that killed and injured at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York
Photo: Derek Gee/AP
According to several media reports and the police chief, ten people were killed in a gun attack in a grocery store in Buffalo, New York.
An attacker armed with a gun opened fire in the supermarket and killed ten people, the local newspaper The Buffalo News reported on Saturday, citing a police representative and investigators.
Accordingly, other people were injured, some of them seriously.
According to the report, the attacker wore a bulletproof vest and helmet and opened fire with a "powerful rifle".
Since the shooter was equipped with a camera, the police are checking whether the act of violence was broadcast live on the Internet.
The newspaper quoted a police officer as comparing the crime scene to a "horror movie."
The Buffalo police confirmed in the online service Twitter a shot in a grocery store.
Several people had been hit, it was initially only said.
According to The Buffalo News, several bodies were found in a store parking lot and others inside the store.
New York State Governor Kathy Hochul wrote on Twitter on Saturday that she was closely monitoring the situation after the incident at a local grocery store.
"If you are in Buffalo, please avoid the area and follow instructions from law enforcement and local authorities."
The Buffalo shooter has been taken into custody, according to the city's mayor.
"The shooter was not from this community," Byron Brown said at a news conference on Saturday afternoon (local time).
"The shooter traveled hours from outside of this community to commit this crime against the people of Buffalo." According to police, the gunman was heavily armed and opened fire in the supermarket parking lot.
A police officer said the investigation was in its early stages and the authorities had not yet identified a clear motive.
It is being investigated whether the shooter left an ideological manifesto and whether the man had a right-wing extremist background.
The supermarket is located several miles north of downtown Buffalo in an area primarily populated by black people.
"Why does a white man come here and shoot in a black supermarket," a local resident said on local television.
The Buffalo News also quoted a supermarket worker who said he had gone into the freezer shortly before the incident.
"I hid myself.
I just hid.
I didn't want to leave the room,' he said.
The host of the local TV station WKBW said, visibly shocked, that her husband had visited the supermarket about an hour before the crime.
Buffalo is the second largest city in the state after New York.
The city with around 280,000 inhabitants is only a few kilometers away from the world-famous Niagara Falls.
jso/AFP/AP/dpa
