Sacked worker opens fire

A Canadian provincial government worker who lost his job returned to his office with a gun and took hostages in a stand-off that left three men dead.

Police would not say whether the 56-year-old gunman was among them.

At least a dozen staff at the Water, Land and Air Protection Ministry in Kamloops, British Columbia, fled to safety as the shots rang out.

Officers were unable to make telephone contact to negotiate with the armed man, and when they entered the building they found the three bodies.

An employee at an office across the street said a counsellor had been dealing with a man who was losing his job. The counsellor then fled across road, telling him the man was armed with a handgun.