Seven dead in drive-by shooting in the US

Santa Barbara: A gunman sprayed bullets from a car in a drive-by shooting in a southern California college town, killing at least six people before his car crashed and he was found dead inside.

A video grab of the car used in the drive-by shooting in southern California. Pic/AFP

Seven more people were wounded in what the Santa Barbara County Sheriff described as a premeditated atrocity by a ‘madman' in the town of Isla Vista near the campus of the University of California at Santa Barbara. "This incident appears to be a mass murder situation," said Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown.

Witnesses reported seeing a black BMW speeding through the streets and spraying bullets at people and other targets in Isla Vista, a beachside community where many college students live. Deputies twice exchanged fire with the gunman before his vehicle crashed and he was found dead inside from a gunshot wound to the head. Authorities recovered a semiautomatic handgun, he said.

"We are analysing the written and videotaped evidence that suggests this atrocity was a premeditated mass murder," Brown said, describing the shooting as "obviously the work of a madman". Brown could not immediately say whether the suspected gunman was killed by deputies in the exchange of fire or died of a self-inflicted wound, nor did he identify the gunman or say whether he was a student.