US gunman shoots three at power company

Saint Louis, Missouri - A gunman stormed a power company's office on Thursday, shooting at least three people and killing one.
Police officers were dispatched after reports of a shooting spree at a busy factory near the centre of the city, and an interstate highway was shut down amid a hunt for a suspect vehicle.
"We have reports of at least three people shot," a police spokeswoman said, adding that the shooter was still at large.
The police said that the attack had taken place in Semple Avenue, an industrial area just north of the city centre and home to the local offices of the Swiss-Swedish engineering giant ABB."There is a large business at this location with numerous employees inside of the building," the police spokeswoman said. "The shooter is thought to be at this location, but he is currently unaccounted for."
Local media reported that the gunman, supposedly wielding an assault rifle, had entered the offices of the power company, shooting one man and forcing others inside to scatter in panic.
Some employees had sought refuge on the the roof of the building to escape the gunman, and were talking to the police, the reports said.
A company supervisor reportedly told the police that the man was a disgruntled worker who might have been recently fired, according to the St Louis Post-Dispatch.
ABB spokesman Bob Fesmire could not confirm whether the shooter was a former employee.
"We can confirm that there was a shooting, but the information is still unclear," he said.
Fesmire said there would normally be about 100 people in the factory from the start of the first shift at around 6am to 6.30am, around the time the shooting is thought to have taken place.
But Fesmire said that there might have been fewer workers at the plant on Thursday thanks to a snow blizzard and temperatures that plunged to -11°C, which had forced some colleagues to stay at home.
By 9am local time, television images showed heavily armed policemen congregated in the snow outside the factory.
The plant is part of Zurich-based ABB's engineering business, and makes power transformers. - Sapa-AFP

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