3 killed, multiple injured in shooting in New Mexico

Houston, May 16

At least three people were killed and multiple others were injured in a shooting in Farmington, southwestern US state of New Mexico, police said.

"There are multiple civilian victims with at least 3 deceased," Farmington police said in a Facebook post on Monday.

Two police officers, including a member of the city police and one with the New Mexico State Police, were among the shot and hospitalised. Both were in stable condition, the police added.

One suspect "was confronted and killed on scene," the police said.

The suspect's identity was unknown and there were no other known threats at this time, the police added.

The shooting took place shortly after 11 a.m. local time in the area of Brookside Park, and all city schools were placed on what officials called "preventative lockdown" following the shooting, local media reported.

Four of the schools remained on lockdown as of just before 1 p.m. local time, Xinhua news agency reported.

"Everyone at Farmington schools -- the students and the staff -- they're all safe and they've been fed," Farmington Municipal Schools spokesman Roberto Taboada later said, adding that all students were released.

This is the second active shooting in the Farmington area in less than six years, local media reported.

Farmington, a city of about 46,400 residents in northwestern New Mexico, serves a modern-day trading post to the adjacent Navajo Nation and a supply line and bedroom community to the region's oil and natural gas industry, according to the reports.