`Random' shooting kills man, injures 8

AUSTRALIAN POLICE are hunting a gunman who killed one man and injured eight people, including a nine-year-old boy, in a high street.

The man walked down a crowded shopping street in Wollongong, 62 miles south of Sydney, yesterday afternoon before firing a shot gun twice. Witnesses said they saw one man lying face down on the pavement with injuries to his back. Other people were hit by pellets and flying glass.

Ambulances took seven people to hospital. Doctors pronounced one man dead on arrival. Police said the victim was 33 and lived locally.

The killer got into a white Toyota Landcruiser, which sped off, driven by a second person. Commander Jim Baillie said that the gunman had stubble on his chin and wore khaki trousers.

The shots were fired outside the Regent Cinema. Police said that as far as they could tell the attack was random and they knew nothing about the dead man which might have made him a target. "We have got no information to give us a motive at this time," Commander Baillie said. One man was detained for questioning shortly after the shooting, but police said he was not being treated as a suspect.