New York authorities have confirmed that all nine bystanders caught in the crossfire of a shooting outside the Empire State Building were wounded by two police officers who had never fired their weapons on duty before.

A man fatally shot a former colleague near the Empire State Building and then was killed by police in a gun battle that wounded nine bystanders outside one of New York’s most popular landmarks.

Thousands of New York’s Irish-Americans and holiday- makers are on alert this morning after an horrific multiple shooting in one of the city’s best-known tourist districts.

A recently laid-off shop worker has shot dead a former colleague outside New York's iconic Empire State Building before being killed by police.