Six shot in city hall attack

A GUNMAN walked into City Hall in Riverside, east of Los Angeles, yesterday and opened fire on the mayor and other officials inside the council chambers before being shot and apprehended by police.

Six people were wounded by gunfire, including one city council member who was later reported to be in a critical condition in a local hospital, and a further dozen were cut by shards of flying glass. The mayor, Ron Loveridge, was hit in the shoulder but was able to walk and talk to ambulance workers when they arrived. One council member was hit in the leg and another in the jaw.

The gunman, said by witnesses to be a former employee of the city's parks and recreation department, appeared to be motivated by revenge after losing his job on Monday. One witness named him as 40-year-old Joe Neale. But details were sketchy and police were not immediately willing to name him.

The episode was the latest in a series of armed attacks on public buildings in the United States and followed the shootings in the summer at the Capitol Building in Washington, in which two police officers were killed.