A signboard outside a Midnight Premiere showing of the “The Dark Knight Rises” on Thursday. At least 14 people were killed and 50 wounded early Friday when a gunman opened fire at a crowded premiere of the new Batman movie in the US state of Colorado, the local police chief said.
© AFP/Getty Images Mike Coppola
DENVER, Colorado, Jul 20 – At least 14 people were killed and some 50 wounded Friday when a gunman opened fire at a crowded cinema premiere of the latest Batman movie in the US state of Colorado, police and media said.
Witnesses interviewed by local media described a scene of chaos at the midnight showing of “The Dark Knight Rises,” saying the gunman had set off tear gas bombs and opened fire in the packed theater in Aurora, a suburb of Denver.
Aurora police chief Dan Oates said 10 people were killed at the scene and another four died later at local hospitals.
He said police had arrested the alleged gunman and that there was “no evidence” of a second, after earlier reports of two gunmen.
Oates said the suspect had claimed to have explosives at his residence and that the apartment complex where he lived had been evacuated and was being searched.
Police spokesman Frank Fania told CNN the suspect was in his 20s, wearing body armor and armed with a rifle and two handguns, adding that he had set off some kind of smoke device in order to sow panic.
Aurora is near the scene of the 1999 Columbine high school massacre, in which 13 people were shot dead and another 24 were wounded.
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