Mass shooting at US supermarket leaves 10 people killed

A gunman opened fire at a supermarket in the U.S. state of Colorado on Monday, killing 10 people, including the first police officer to arrive on the scene, the second U.S. mass shooting in a week and seventh mass killing this year.

The massacre unfolded at about 3 p.m. at a King Soopers grocery store in the city of Boulder. Frantic shoppers and employees fled for cover through the supermarket as law enforcement officers swarmed the scene.

Police said the gunman, who was not publicly identified, was injured in the violence but they gave no further details.

The attack was the seventh mass killing this year in the U.S., following last week’s shooting that left eight people dead at three Atlanta-area massage businesses, according to a database compiled by The Associated Press, USA Today and Northeastern University.

Colorado has been the scene of some of the most shocking mass shootings in modern U.S. history.

In 2012, a young man dressed in tactical gear burst into a movie theater in the Denver suburb of Aurora during a midnight screening and sprayed the audience with gunfire, killing 12 and wounding 70.

And in 1999, a pair of students went on a shooting rampage at Columbine High School near Littleton, Colorado, murdering 12 classmates and a teacher before taking their own lives.

The United States loses around 33,000 people to gun violence every year. Additionally, more than 100,000 people are shot and wounded each year in the country.

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