Pittsburgh shooting: Casualties at Squirrel Hill synagogue
There are multiple casualties at a synagogue in the US city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, after a gunman opened fire during a service on Saturday.
Police have not said how many people died at the Tree of Life synagogue but four officers were among the wounded.
The suspect has not been officially identified but US media have named him as Robert Bowers.
The suspect is in police custody and is being treated in hospital for injuries, officials say.
“It’s a very horrific scene. One of the worst I’ve seen, and I’ve [worked] on some plane crashes. It’s very bad,” Pittsburgh’s Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich said.
He would not say how many people had died. He confirmed six people were injured, four of whom are police officers.
Mr Hissrich said there would now be a federal investigation of a hate crime.
The synagogue serves the Squirrel Hill neighbourhood, which has one of the largest Jewish populations in Pennsylvania.
Emergency services arrived at the building at about 10:00 local time (14:00 GMT). A service was taking place at the time.
A reporter at the scene said survivors described hearing the gunman shout anti-Semitic abuse as he entered the building, US media report.
The gunman was reportedly a heavy-set white male with a beard.
According to the reports, he was armed with an assault rifle and two pistols. He was said to have barricaded himself in a room at the synagogue.
Footage broadcast on US news channels showed a police Swat team and ambulances arriving as officers lined the streets.
US President Donald Trump later said the shooting was a “terrible, terrible thing”.
“To see this happen again and again, for so many years, it’s just a shame,” he told reporters on Saturday.
He described the gunman as a “maniac” and suggested the US should “stiffen up our laws of the death penalty”.
“These people should pay the ultimate price. This has to stop,” he said.
Mr Trump added that the incident had “little to do” with US gun laws. “If they had protection inside, maybe it could have been a different situation,” he said.
The president is due to give a statement about the synagogue shooting when he appears at the Future Farmers of America Convention in Indianapolis later on Saturday.
The BBC’s Dan Johnson in Washington says the shootings come at a tense time in the US, after a week in which mail bombs were sent to critics of Mr Trump, ahead of crucial mid-term elections next month.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the shooting as “horrendous anti-Semitic brutality”.
Earlier, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf said in a statement that the incident was an “absolute tragedy” and that such acts of violence could not be accepted as “normal”.
He said: “These senseless acts of violence are not who we are as Americans. My thoughts right now are focused on the victims, their families and making sure law enforcement has every resource they need.”
The New York Police Department said it had deployed officers to synagogues throughout the city as a precaution.
