MULTIPLE FATALITIES IN KANSAS WORKPLACE SHOOTING.

HESSTON, KAN .•A county sheriff said Thursday four to seven people, including a gunman, were dead and 20 to 30 people injured after a series of shootings in Kansas.

Sheriff T. Walton said at a news conference Thursday evening there were “a number of crime scenes involved,” including the Excel Industries plant in Hesston, north of Wichita, which manufactures lawn- mower products. The suspect, who Walton said was or had been an Excel employee, was fatally shot by authorities.

The sheriff said a shooting also took place in the plant parking lot and two other locations nearby. He said the suspect travelled between the sites and fired from his car.

Walton said authorities were still working to determine the exact number of fatalities and injuries. He told TV station KAKE “anywhere from four to seven” people were killed and between 20 to 30 people were shot.

“We want to get everybody identified. We’re working on that,” he said at the news conference.

The sheriff said the FBI and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation had been called in to assist.

Martin Espinoza, who works at Excel, was in the plant during the shooting. He heard people yelling to others to get out of the building, then heard popping, then saw the shooter, a coworker he described as typically pretty calm.

Espinoza told The Associated Press the shooter pointed a gun at him and pulled the trigger, but the gun was empty. At that point, the shooter got a different gun and Martin took off running.

“I looked right at him and he looked right at me,” Espinoza said.

Hesston is a community of around 3,700 about 56 kilometres north of Wichita.

“This is just a horrible incident. ... There’s going to be a lot of sad people before this is all over,” Walton said.

The shootings come less than a week after a man opened fire at several locations in Kalamazoo, Mich., leaving six people dead and two severely wounded.