Police close motorway in 'sniper' hunt

A man was shot at a petrol station today, and police searching for a sniper closed down a nearby motorway after reports a white van had been seen in the area.

It was not immediately clear if the shooting near Fredericksburg was linked to nine other attacks that have killed seven people in the Washington area, Virginia state police said.

The sniper shot dead a man at a petrol station in Manassas, 30 miles north of Fredericksburg, on Wednesday night.

Today’s shooting occurred at 2.30pm Irish time at an Exxon station just south of Fredericksburg, state police spokeswoman Lucy Caldwell said.

The victim died in the shooting, reported Fox News.

A white Chevy Astro van with ladder racks on top was seen near the station about the time of the shooting, Caldwell said.

Police closed down parts of nearby Interstate 95 and were stopping white vans there and on other roads in the area.

A white van or box truck also was spotted near the scenes of two other shootings linked to the sniper.

A van was pulled over shortly after Wednesday night’s fatal shooting, but the occupants had a reasonable explanation for being in the area, Prince William County Police Chief Charlie Deane said.

There have been no known witnesses to the attacks. However, police have been reviewing video surveillance tapes from the shooting scenes – all public places.

Police Chief Charles Moose of Montgomery County, Maryland, said today that a special projects unit of the FBI was working “with a sense of urgency” on a graphic aid that will be distributed to the public in the search for the sniper.