Four dead, including shooter, in gunfire at Florida naval base

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Emergency responders at the Naval Air Base Station Pensacola, Florida, where the US Navy has confirmed that an active shooter and three other people are dead. (AP Photo)
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The Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida where an active shooter was reported. (AFP)
Updated 07 December 2019
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Four dead, including shooter, in gunfire at Florida naval base

  • At least 12 people were taken to hospitals in the Pensacola area
  • NAS Pensacola employs more than 16,000 military and 7,400 civilian personnel

PENSACOLA: An aviation student from Saudi Arabia opened fire in a classroom building at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola on Friday morning, a US official said, an attack that left three dead in addition to the assailant.
The assault was the second at a US Navy base this week and prompted a massive law enforcement response and a lockdown at the base.
The student, who was fatally shot by a sheriff’s deputy, was a second lieutenant in the Saudi Air Force, said the US official. 
Base commander Capt. Tim Kinsella confirmed at a news conference that the shooter was an aviation trainee at the base. 
Twelve people were hurt in the attack, including two sheriff’s deputies who were the first to respond, one of whom killed the shooter, Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan said. One of the deputies was shot in the arm and the other in the knee, and both were expected to recover, he said.
All of the shooting took place in one classroom and the shooter used a handgun, authorities said. Kinsella noted that weapons are not allowed on the base.
The base remained closed until further notice and those still there would be evacuated when authorities decided it was safe to do so, Kinsella said.
President Donald Trump tweeted his condolences to the families of the victims and noted that he had received a phone call from Saudi King Salman. He said the king told him that “the Saudi people are greatly angered by the barbaric actions of the shooter, and that this person in no way shape or form represents the feelings of the Saudi people who love the American people.”

King Salman has also ordered Saudi security services to cooperate with the relevant American agencies to obtain information that would help to uncover the circumstances surrounding the shooting incident.
One of the Navy’s most historic and storied bases, Naval Air Station sprawls along the waterfront southwest of downtown Pensacola and dominates the economy of the surrounding area.
Part of the Pensacola base resembles a college campus, with buildings where 60,000 members of the Navy, Marines, Air Force and Coast Guard receive training each year in multiple fields of aviation. The base’s training program includes a couple of hundred from countries outside the US, Kinsella said.
The base is home is home to the Blue Angels flight demonstration team, and includes the National Naval Aviation Museum, a popular regional tourist attraction.
The shooting is the second at a US naval base this week. A sailor whose submarine was docked at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, opened fire on three civilian employees Wednesday, killing two before taking his own life.


France bans 10 British far-right, anti-migration activists from entering

Updated 3 sec ago
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France bans 10 British far-right, anti-migration activists from entering

PARIS: France’s interior ministry said on Wednesday it has banned 10 British far-right activists from entering or staying in the country, after they carried out actions deemed to ​incite violence and seriously disturb public order on French territory.
The activists, identified as members of a group called “Raise the Colors” that was involved in a national flag-raising campaign, seek to find and destroy boats used to carry migrants and spread propaganda on France’s northern coast calling on the British public to join the movement to stop ‌migration, according to ‌the French interior ministry.
“Our rule ‌of ⁠law ​is non-negotiable, ‌violent or hate-inciting actions have no place on our territory,” French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez wrote on social media platform X on Wednesday.
The ministry said in a statement it had been informed of the group’s activities in December last year and that it had referred the matter to the relevant authorities, ⁠as the actions were likely to cause “serious disturbances” to public order.
“Raise the ‌Colors” describes itself as a grassroots movement ‍that began in the central ‍English city of Birmingham, when a small group started ‍tying national flags to lampposts in a show of national pride. It says the effort has since spread across the UK.
The widespread display of the red-and-white St. George’s Cross for England and the ​Union Jack for Britain has prompted concern among some migrant communities as a reflection of rising anti-immigration ⁠sentiment in the country, coinciding with a wave of protests outside hotels housing asylum seekers last year.
Neither the group nor the British Foreign Office immediately responded to Reuters requests for comment.
Immigration and the crossings of small boats carrying migrants from France have become a focal point for British voters and has helped propel Nigel Farage’s right-wing, anti-immigration Reform UK party, into a commanding opinion poll lead.
Farage last year in London met the leader of French far-right National Rally (RN) party, Jordan Bardella, ‌who has accused France of being too soft on immigration.