At least two upstate New York firefighters were shot and killed and two wounded today at the scene of an early morning house fire in a suburb of Rochester, according to local news reports.
The police chief in the New York State town said four firefighters were shot while responding to the blaze and that two are dead.
Chief Gerald Pickering said "one or more shooters" shot at the firefighters this morning.
The gunman who entrapped and shot the four volunteer firefighters outside a blazing home is dead, Mr Pickering said.
A spokeswoman at Strong Memorial Hospital said two Webster firefighters were being treated for gunshot wounds and were in "guarded" condition.
Local law enforcement officials were evacuating and searching homes near the site of the fire in Webster, but had not yet turned up any suspects, the newspaper
"The whole strip's been evacuated," resident Michael Damico told the Democrat and Chronicle. "They're evacuating all of the houses and going through them."
The deaths come amid renewed demands for tougher gun laws, after the Newtown school shooting 10 days ago in which 20 children and seven adults were killed.
Yesterday the most powerful gun rights lobby group, the National Rifle Association, vowed again to oppose any new restrictions and said it would not cooperate with a task force on gun violence to be led by vice-president Joe Biden.
Reuters/AP/Guardian.