Two firefighters were fatally shot in a mountain community in Idaho, in north-western US, while responding to a brush fire, officials say.
Another firefighter was injured when a suspect opened fire with a high-powered rifle near the city of Coeur d’Alene, according to the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office.
Swat officers later “located a deceased male” nearby to where the attack took place on Canfield Mountain, and lifted a shelter-in-place order. But residents were also warned that an active wildfire was still continuing on the mountain.
The suspect is believed to have started the fire intentionally, as a way to “ambush” first responders, according to Kootenai County Sheriff Robert Norris.
According to police, the dead man was found nearby a firearm after the hours-long standoff, which included shots being fired by police.
Police are still awaiting official identification, and say nothing is yet known about his background. They have not confirmed how the man died, or what firearm was discovered.
The shelter-in-place notice was lifted at 20:50PST (03:50 BST), but residents were told to be “prepared and ready should further action need to be taken”.
The firefighters who were killed were not immediately identified. Officials said they would be driven in a procession to the nearby city of Spokane, Washington, escorted by a convoy of official vehicles.
One was a member of the Coeur D’Alene Fire Department, while the other was a Kootenai County Fire and Rescue firefighter.
Sheriff Norris said that a preliminary investigation has found that there was only one gunman, after he said earlier that there could have been as many as four different attackers.
The attacker was found after a mobile phone signal revealed his location, he said.
He said that said the gunman appeared to have run and shot and that evidence would be expected to be found all around the mountain. He said the attacker may have stashed weapons is different places.
“This was a total ambush. These firefighters did not have a chance,” the sheriff said.
ReutersHe added that investigators had to search the scene quickly, due to the encroaching fire, and that the information they had was still “very, very preliminary”.
“A fire was rapidly approaching that body. And we had to scoop up that body and transport that body to another location,” he said.
The attack occurred about four miles (6.5km) north of central Coeur d’Alene.
The fire grew to 20 acres after it was first reported, and continued to blaze into Sunday night.
Sheriff Norris warned earlier in the day, as the attack was still unfolding, that if the killer was “not neutralised quickly, this is going to be a likely a multi-day operation”.
The call for the brush fire came in around 13:22 local time (20:22 GMT) on Sunday. At 14:00, firefighters reported shots fired and over 300 law enforcement officers rushed to the scene. FBI agents were also deployed.
The shooter was hidden among heavy brush and thick trees, the sheriff said, adding that police snipers sent in helicopters over the scene.
Helicopters with heat-seeking technology were flying over the area trying to pinpoint the assailant, but they experienced difficulty because of smoke from the wildfire, which was still burning, according to CBS News, the BBC’s US partner.
Officials had appealed to the public to stay away, and to not fly drones over the site.
A firefighters’ union boss confirmed two of its members had been killed in the attack.
Edward Kelly, president of the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) union, posted on X: “While responding to a fire earlier today in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, IAFF members were ambushed in a heinous act of violence.
“Two of our brothers were killed by a sniper, and a third brother remains in surgery.
“Please keep them, their families, and law enforcement in your prayers.”
Local fire chief Pat Riley told TV station KHQ he was “heartbroken” by the attack.
The case was a big shock to those living in Coeur d’Alene, a city of around 56,000 people that is near the border with Washington state.
Coeur d’Alene resident Linda Tiger, 80, told the BBC she was shocked by the shooting.
“This has never happened here,” said Mrs Tiger, who has lived in the city for nearly 30 years. “But it goes to show that that no-one is safe from this kind of mental sadness.”
