Young woman dead, 3 people seriously hurt in Texas shootings; gunman on the loose

Sun, 31 Jul, 2016 - 11:00

Update 12 noon: Officials in the US state of Texas say one woman in her 20s has died after a gunman opened fire in the capital, Austin.

Three other people have been taken to hospital with gun shot wounds according to emergency services.

In total five people were shot and one man refused medical transport to hospital according to authorities.

Officers are still looking for the gunman and say there were two separate shooting incidents within the same area.

Update 11am:

A woman is dead and three other people seriously wounded after a shooting incident in the centre of Austin, Texas.

Captain Rick Rutledge of the Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services said one woman had died and two women and a man had been taken to hospital after the shooting in the city's entertainment district.

There was no immediate word on the condition of those taken to University Medical Centre Brackenridge.

Austin Police Department earlier posted on its Facebook and Twitter pages that there was an active shooting incident with multiple victims, but later said the scene was secure.

Police had warned people to stay away from the city centre.

Gunshots on #6thstreet #Austin super close to me 😓 @MSNBC @KVUE @KXAN_News pic.twitter.com/3t9LKECqkV
— Sam Vedamanikam (@samved09) July 31, 2016

Earlier:

There are reports that a woman has been killed by a gunman in Texas.

Police say several people have been injured in the city of Austin. They have warned the public to stay away from the downtown area, though they later added the scenes of the shootings were nowsecure.

Officers are still looking for the gunman, and have tweeted to say there were separate shootings within the same area.

Witness Dorian Santiago said he had heard five shots.

"People started running like crazy. There was an injured girl who was freaked out, and there was another girl on the floor.

"It looked like they were doing CPR, but it looked like she was already dead," he said.