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1 dead, 24 injured after gunfire 'swept across a crowd' at Arkansas car show

Monday, 21 March 2022 2:40 AM [ Last Update: Monday, 21 March 2022 2:41 AM ]

People stand near the scene of a shooting on Saturday, March 19, 2022, at a car show in Dumas, Arkansas.

One person was killed and at least 24 others injured when 1 or more gunmen shot at attendees of a car show in Arkansas, police in the southern US state said on Sunday.

Authorities were investigating the Saturday evening incident in the town of Dumas and the "gunfire that swept across a crowd attending a local car show, leaving 1 person dead, and at least 24 others wounded," Arkansas State Police said in a statement.

A suspect was taken into custody, but police were searching for "others who may have been firing into the crowd of people", the statement said.

The event's organizers, the Hood-Nic Foundation, said the group was "heartbroken and in shock" at the tragedy that unfolded at the outdoor event, which a representative of Hood-Nic said was intended to promote nonviolence.

"We're not for violence, we're against it," organizer Wallace McGhee told local television station KARK, saying the event had taken place for 16 years without incident and that the group shared condolences with those injured.

"The main issue for all of us was getting kids out of the way, getting people out of the way," he said.

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At least 400 Americans have been killed in gun violence in first four days of 2022, , according to the Gun Violence Archive..

Police said children were among those injured, a local CBS affiliate reported.

Mass shootings are a relatively common occurrence in the United States, where firearms are used in approximately 40,000 deaths a year, including suicides, according to the Gun Violence Archive website.

Lax gun laws and the right to bear arms have repeatedly stymied attempts to clamp down on the number of weapons in circulation, despite greater controls being favored by the majority of Americans.

(Source: AFP)

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