Two killed as gunman attacks abortion clinic oveyr 2

A gunman dressed all in black killed two people and wounded five others at two abortion clinics in the Boston suburb of Brookline yesterday. The attacks raise fears that extreme anti-abortion activists are increasingly willing to use lethal violen ce to close clinics.

The shootings began when a man, described as a good-looking, white male in his early thirties, arrived at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Beacon Street carrying a bag. A witness said: "He drops the duffle bag, pulls out a rifle, a hunting rifle." He then opened fire.

Having shot the receptionist at close range and fired at other people waiting in the lobby, the gunman ran down the street to the Preterm clinic a mile away where he killed a second victim. Police were still looking for him yesterday afternoon.

The killings bring to five the number of people murdered by anti-abortion militants in recent years and are likely to generate a wave of revulsion against them. A Presbyterian preacher, Paul Hill, was sentenced to death this month for shooting a doctor and his bodyguard dead as they entered a clinic in Pensacola, Florida.

At the second clinic in Boston, witnesses said the gunman walked in and asked "Is this Preterm? We said `yes' and then he began shooting." After shooting the receptionist and an office worker he ran down a passage where, in an exchange of fire, he wounded a security guard who pursued him.