A gunman armed with a submachine gun opened fire in a Jewish community centre in a Los Angeles suburb yesterday, hitting five people with bullets including an eight-year-old boy who was left fighting for his life, police said.
Police said the gunman, a white male in his 40s, wearing a black shirt and gray pants, burst into the lobby of the North Valley Jewish Community Centre in Granada Hills and began firing. The gunman escaped after the shootings and a massive search is continuing for him.
He shot five people, including a six-year-old boy, two eight-year-old boys, a 16-year-girl and a woman aged 86. Dr Charles Deng of Providence Holy Cross Medical Centre said one eight-year-old boy was shot in his leg and abdomen and was "very critical".
He said the boy was undergoing surgery and his condition was "minute by minute. We don't know if he's going to survive these next few hours, let alone the next few days". The other victims were listed in stable condition.
Police said it was believed the man used a 9 mm Uzi machinegun but could give no motive for the attack. The gunman fled and police were conducting a house-by-house search. They also searched a nearby golf course while other officers led uninjured children at the centre to safety.
Frantic parents rushed to the school. One distraught father tried to break through a police barrier and was handcuffed. A police spokesman said they had no idea why the Jewish centre was chosen for the attack or if the gunman was still in the area.
President Clinton last night deplored the shootings as an act of "senseless violence" and suggested they showed the need for tighter gun control laws. "Once again our nation has been shaken and our hearts torn by an act of gun violence. To the victims and their families, like all Americans, I offer our thoughts and prayers" he said.
Police were close to the centre at the time of the shooting and were on the scene in seconds, police said. Describing the scene, a police spokesman said it was "the worse case scenario" for paramedics, "children with gunshot wounds".
After attending to the injured, police and fire-fighters led 22 other children to safety. Led by a fire-fighter, the children held hands in single file and walked to a synagogue nearby.
The Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Ehud Barak, condemned the shooting. "If it is a terrorist attack, it is very serious since that would fit in with the wave of anti-semitism sweeping the world recently," he said on television.