Prosecutors in the state of Maryland filed the first murder charges in the 13 sniper attacks that terrorised the Washington area, and authorities today tracked down the co-owner of a blue Chevrolet Caprice in which the two suspects were arrested.

A BUS driver was the Washington sniper’s thirteenth victim, police said last night as anxious parents took their children back to schools after a chilling warning from the gunman that said “your children are not safe.”

HIGH-OCTANE fear stalked the Washington area in the US yesterday after a man was shot dead at a Fredericksburg petrol station just 30 miles from where a sniper claimed his seventh victim on Wednesday night.

The death toll from the Washington sniper rose to seven as ballistics evidence linked the killer to a man gunned down at a Virginia petrol station.