US soldier accused of shooting rampage ‘awake and talking’

THE military psychiatrist accused of shooting 13 people dead during a rampage at a US army base is awake and talking, hospital staff said yesterday.

Major Nidal Malik Hasan was in a coma after being shot several times by a civilian police officer responding to the attack at Fort Hood in Texas last Thursday.

But officials at the Brooke Army Medical Centre in San Antonio confirmed yesterday that he was conscious.