10 killed in Alabama shooting rampage

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WASHINGTON, Mar 11 (AFP): A gunman in the southern state of Alabama went on a shooting rampage Tuesday, killing at least nine people before turning the gun fatally on himself, law enforcement officials have said.

Authorities responded "to a series of at least four shooting incidents involving... a single gunman who left at least nine victims dead before he died from a self-inflicted gunshot," a Public Safety Department statement said.

"This is a very complicated investigation that is unfolding," it added.

Federal agents said they expected the death toll to rise further. "We believe there will be additional people, there are incoming reports but they are not official," a local Federal Bureau of Investigation official told the news agency.

The police began to uncover the grisly aftermath of the gunman's rage late Tuesday afternoon, when four adults and a child were found shot dead inside a residence in the town of Samson, authorities said.

Then, two more adults were found dead in two separate residences nearby, the statement said.

"It is believed the gunman left that location, traveling on Alabama route 52 where he shot at a state trooper's vehicle, striking the vehicle seven times and slightly wounding the trooper due to broken glass," it said.