NEW YORK - A gunman killed one person and wounded seven others on the crowded 86th floor observation deck of the Empire State Building last night before turning the pistol on himself, police said.
The gunman was in critical condition at Bellevue Hospital, according to police. No further information about the victims and their relationship to the gunman was released. But New York One television said the man killed in the shooting was the gunman's "intended target".
The shooting sent hundreds of tourists on the 86th floor of the skyscraper scattering for safety. Witnesses said they dived to the floor as bursts of fire rang out.
A St Vincent's Hospital spokesman said three people wounded in the shootings were being treated there. He said two of them were French nationals, and that they were in serious condition.