(Reuters) – At least one person was killed and five wounded in a shooting on Thursday in downtown Seattle, city police said on Twitter, adding they were searching for suspects.
Few details on the violence were immediately available but television station KOMO-TV reported the incident snarled evening rush-hour traffic and quoted an office worker identified only as Bill as saying he heard gunfire and saw scores of people running for cover.
“It was sheer panic,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Detectives are investigating after six people were wounded by gunfire, one fatally,” Seattle police said on Twitter.
“The suspect(s) fled the scene.”
A spokeswoman for Harborview Medical Center said that seven victims had been brought to the hospital’s emergency room. She gave no information about the patients’ conditions.
The police department said officers and medics were providing aid to victims at the scene.
KOMO-TV said a 9-year-old boy was among the wounded, and that a 55-year-old woman was critically wounded. The station reported two suspects were at large.
(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb and Steve Gorman in Culver City, California; Editing by Sandra Maler; Editing by Robert Birsel)
