MONTEREY PARK: Police in Southern California on Sunday launched a manhunt for an Asian male suspected in a mass shooting that left 10 people dead and 10 others wounded at a dance club during Lunar New Year celebrations, police said Sunday.
The "male suspect fled the scene and remains outstanding," Los Angeles County sheriff Robert Luna told a press conference in Monterey Park. He cautioned that the description of the shooter remains preliminary, and he gave no further identifying details.
The gunman opened fire as the local community were celebrating Lunar New Year at the venue in Monterey Park, with witnesses saying he shot indiscriminately with a semiautomatic weapon.
Luna said officers had responded to emergency calls at 10:22pm on Saturday (6:22 Sunday GMT) and found people pouring out of the premises.
"The Monterey Park Fire Department responded to the scene and treated the injured and pronounced 10 of the victims deceased at the scene," Captain Andrew Meyer said earlier.
Five of the dead were women and five men, officials said.
Luna said the 10 people wounded had been transported to several hospitals and were listed in conditions ranging from stable to critical.
He said he did not believe the shooter used an assault rifle, but he did not identify which weapons were used.
Luna also described a second incident in nearby Alhambra some 20 minutes later, in which another Asian man carrying a gun walked into a dance studio but was tackled and thwarted. He fled the scene and no injuries were reported.
Alhambra is about two miles north of Monterey Park. Luna said investigators were probing whether the incidents were related.
Sheriff's deputies secured the scene in Monterey Park Sunday morning and established a security perimeter around the area, an AFP reporter said.
A helicopter flew overhead, as television trucks set up to broadcast.
At the entrance to Monterey Park, only a few miles from downtown Los Angeles, a banner celebrating the Lunar New Year remained in place.