Police have confirmed that 14 people have been killed and 14 people have been injured in a gun rampage near a disability centre in San Bernadino, California, Mirror reports.
The incident took place at the Inland Regional Centre, a centre for people with disabilities, located about 100km east of Los Angeles.
Police say three white males are believed to have carried out the attack.
There are reports that the workers were holding a staff Christmas party when the gunmen – reportedly armed with AK-47-type weapons – opened fire.
The suspects – who were reportedly wearing ski masks – fled the scene in a black SUV after leaving an explosive device at the scene, which the bomb squad detonated by using a robot.
“Is this a terrorist incident? We do not know,” said David Bowdich, the assistant director of the FBI’s Los Angeles field office.
San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said there was no real information as to motive available.
“We have no information at this point to indicate that this is terrorist related, in the traditional sense that people may be thinking,” Burguan said. “Obviously, at a minimum, we have a domestic terrorist-type situation that occurred here.”
Another police spokeswoman, Sgt. Vicki Cervantes, said: “Multiple shooters came in and just started shooting. We were told that at least one of the shooters may have left in a black S.U.V (four-wheel drive sports vehicle) from the location.”
President Obama was being interviewed by CBS News when news of the attack broke.
“Obviously our hearts go out to the victims and the families,” he said. “The one thing we do know is that we have a pattern now of mass shootings in this country that has no parallel anywhere else in the world.”
One man whose wife worked in the building told KABC-TV that at least one gunman walked into the centre and opened fire. She was able to lock herself in her office.
“They saw bodies on the floor,” he said.
The BBC is reporting that one man received a text from his daughter telling him she was hiding inside the building, where she works.
Terry Petit told reporters his daughter wrote to him: “People shot. In the office waiting for cops. Pray for us. I am locked in an office.”
The shooting comes just days after a mass shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado, which killed three people.
