Three dead in shooting at a mall in Indiana, USA
Three people were killed and two others were injured when a person opened fire in a mall in the US state of Indiana, officials said.
"We witnessed heavy shooting tonight at Greenwood Park Mall," Marc Myers, Mayor of Greenwood, Indiana, said in a statement.
The city is located about 16 kilometers south of downtown Indianapolis, the state capital.
Myers noted that the shooter was shot dead by an "armed person".
Greenwood Police posted a message on their Facebook page asking people who witnessed the shooting to contact them with information.
Greenwood Police Chief Jim Eason said the unidentified shooter entered the mall's restaurant booth around 6:00 GMT (22:00 GMT) and was carrying a gun and ammunition combs.
Ayson explained that among the injured was a 12-year-old girl, adding that the motives of the attacker were not yet known.
He continued, "Four deaths have been confirmed," including the main shooter.
Ayson praised the intervention of the 22-year-old gunman who ended the attack.
He added, "The real hero today is the citizen who was legally carrying a gun in the dining hall and was able to stop the shooter almost as soon as he started."
The attack is the latest in a series of armed violence in the United States, where the use of firearms kills about 40,000 people annually, according to the "Gann Violence Archive" website.
The attack comes just two weeks after a gunman opened fire during a festive parade on July 4 in an affluent Chicago suburb, killing seven people and wounding at least 30. It also follows two massacres in May that killed 10 black people in a supermarket in Chicago. upstate New York, and the killing of 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Texas.
The recent rise in violence has fueled controversy over the regulation of gun ownership in the country.
A US House of Representatives committee is due to consider a bill that would ban assault weapons for the first time in nearly 20 years this week.
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