An employee walked into a meat-processing plant in Kansas yesterday and opened fire with handguns, shooting four other workers to death and then killing himself, local police said.
The shooting took place at a plant in Kansas City, operated by ConAgra Foods Inc, one of the largest US food and agribusiness companies.
The identities of the gunman and victims were not immediately released. Three other people were injured, one of them critically, and taken to local hospitals, police said.
Police said the shootings happened about 5 p.m. (11 p.m. Irish time). The motive for the killings had not been determined. But the Kansas City Starnewspaper said plant workers recognised the shooter as someone who had worked at the plant, been laid off and recently brought back.
The dead were men ages 46, 45, 49, 21 and 23, according to Police Col Sam Breshears. Police would not say which of the five dead was believed to be the shooter. The man who was critically wounded was 55 years old. Two other men, aged 44 and 60, were in stable condition.
Mr Breshears said police believed most of the shooting took place in the cafeteria and break room of the 24-hour meat processing plant. About 160 people were in the facility at the time, he said.