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Police operation at the University of Nevada
Photo: Steve Marcus / Las Vegas Sun / REUTERS
At least three people have been killed in a gun attack at a university in the US state of Nevada. A fourth victim was seriously injured and taken to a hospital, as the police of the city of Las Vegas announced on Wednesday in the short message service X, formerly Twitter. The attacker is dead. "There is no longer any danger to the public," said Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill.
The shots were fired on Wednesday afternoon (local time) on the campus of the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. Students were called upon to get to safety, the police moved in with a large contingent. Special forces and the US Federal Police FBI were deployed.
A short time later, the police announced that the suspected attacker had been found and was dead – less than an hour after the first emergency call. The exact background of the attack was initially unclear.
A woman told local station KVVU that she heard several loud noises and fled into a building on campus. "I ran to the basement, and we were in the basement for 20 minutes." Later, she was led out of the building by the police. Other students had hidden in lecture rooms.
Already 600 attacks this year
The nearest hospital, Sunrise Hospital, had already activated its protocol for special large-scale situations after the first alarm. Subsequently, the hospital was closed to all other patients. In the meantime, three injured people are being treated, but the building is accessible to everyone again.
In the United States, gun attacks occur again and again, resulting in many injuries or deaths. According to the specialized website Gun Violence Archive, there have already been 600 attacks nationwide this year, in which four or more people have been injured or killed by firearms.
The gambling metropolis of Las Vegas, located in the western United States, was the scene of the deadliest gun attack in U.S. history in 2017. At that time, 58 people were shot dead at a music festival, and two more people died in the following years as a result of their injuries. Today's crime scene is only a few kilometres away from the festival site.
jok/AFP