U.S: Gunman kills three in Maryland factory

A gunman opened fire at a manufacturing facility in northern Maryland on Thursday, killing at least three people and critically wounding a fourth before being taken into custody after a shootout with police.

The assailant, who was not immediately identified, was wounded in an exchange of gunfire with a Maryland state trooper, a Washington County Sheriff’s spokeswoman said.

Both the suspect and trooper were taken to a local hospital for treatment of gunshot wounds.

The spokeswoman said there was “no active threat” to the community but declined to elaborate on the circumstances of the incident, the latest in a string of mass shootings to plague the United States.

The shooting erupted at a plant operated by Columbia Machine in Smithsburg, in northern Maryland near the Pennsylvania state line.

A Columbia Machine spokesperson said the company was cooperating with authorities in their probe into the shooting but declined to comment further.

The company supplies concrete manufacturing equipment to customers in over 100 countries, according to its website.

The Baltimore offices of the FBI and U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said on Twitter it was sending agents to the scene.

Late last month, an 18-year-old man opened fire at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, killing 19 students and two teachers.

The killings in Uvalde and a mass shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York that left 10 people dead, have prompted new efforts in U.S. Congress to enact stricter federal gun control laws.

Reuters/Zainab Sa’id