US: Gunman opens fire at Maryland factory, killing 3

In United States, three people were killed when a man opened fire at a manufacturing business facility in Smithsburg in rural western Maryland on Thursday. Police said that the suspect and a trooper were also wounded in an exchange of gunfire. Both were being treated for their injuries. Governor Larry Hogan said that the man opened fire on troopers before at least one officer returned fire and wounded the suspect. However, the authorities did not have information on whether the suspect and victims were employees of the company where the shooting took place. 

The 23-year-old assailant, who was not identified by police, was wounded in an exchange of gunfire with a Maryland state trooper while trying to flee in a car, Washington County Sheriff Douglas Mullendore told a news conference. Mullendore declined to elaborate on the circumstances or possible motives behind the attack but said the gunman and all of his victims were employees of Columbia Machine in Smithsburg, in northern Maryland near the Pennsylvania state line. Smithsburg, a community of nearly 3,000 people, is just west of the Camp David presidential retreat and about 75 miles (120 kilometers) northwest of Baltimore. The manufacturing facility was in a sparsely populated area northeast of the town's center with a church, several businesses and farmland nearby.