A shooting has taken place outside the Empire State Building in Midtown Manhattan in New York City on Friday morning.
The shooting took place around 9a.m. as the work day was getting started.
Reuters reports that at least two people were killed in the shooting. The Associated Press says that the shooter was shot dead by the NYPD. The FDNY reports that at least eight were wounded. Other reports say three to four were shot.
Officials say the incident was not terrorist-related, a major concern for those who were deeply affected by the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in 2001. Some news sources are saying the shooting may have started as a dispute between coworkers.
According to traffic reports, 34th st, and Fifth Avenue was closed off as police, ambulances and firefighters arrived on the scene.
People took to Twitter to live Tweet the shooting as it happened.
User @SolitaryMob wrote "Mass chaos 34th & 5th by Empire State; Sirens & dozens of police cars & ambulances. My boss said he heard gunshots."
User @Suzi_Elayoubi wrote about the chaos and what she witnessed. "The gunshots were like a movie scene, everybody running in every direction and you can hear the gunshots everywhere not knowing where to run," she said. "Gunshots just flew over my head infringing of the empire state in New York!! A young man just died in front of me!"
Several witnesses also commented on a Reddit Feed.
"I was on the bus right there when it happened. At least four people got shot. Two on the northwest side of the street, one empire state building ticket guy in the middle of the crosswalk, and someone on the southwest corner. That was terrifying," User titan413 wrote.
"There is a man with a bullet in his head in front of my building at 10w 33rd. His blood had just reached the gutters when I arrived. I looked at his corpse for about 1 second and felt all the hair on my body rise-- it is the first corpse I have ever seen as a result of violence," said user CatfishRadiator.
The story is developing.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
