Investigators were trying today to find out why a gunman killed 13 people at an immigration centre before apparently shooting himself.

Up to 13 people were killed and 26 others injured when a man armed with a high-powered rifle opened fire in New York today, according to US reports.

At least four people were shot and dozens taken hostage by a man armed with a high-powered rifle in New York, US officials said today.

Up to 200,000 people in the Wilkes-Barre area of Pennsylvania were ordered to evacuate their homes because of rising water on the Susquehanna River, swelled by a record-breaking deluge that has killed at least 12 people across the US North-East.

A 27-year-old man stabbed his wife to death and then drove to a home in a nearby suburb and killed four more relatives before fleeing with his three-year-old son, Californian authorities said yesterday.