GURNEE, Illinois:Three people were injured in a shooting in the parking lot of an amusement park north of Chicago that sent visitors scrambling for safety, authorities said.
Officers responded about 7:50 p.m. Sunday after 911 calls reporting shots fired at Six Flags Great America, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) north of Chicago, the Gurnee Police Department said.
“The shooting ... was not a random act, and appeared to be a targeted incident that occurred outside the park,” police said in statement posted to Facebook.
According to an initial investigation, police said a white sedan entered the parking lot and drove toward the park’s front entrance. People got out of the car and shot at another person in the parking lot before driving away, police said.
Additional detail about the suspects, including the number of people who fired shots, wasn’t immediately released. Police were investigating.
A 17-year-old boy from Aurora, Illinois, had a thigh wound and a 19-year-old woman from Appleton, Wisconsin, had a leg wound, police said. They were taken to a hospital and their wounds were described as non-life-threatening. A third victim had a shoulder injury and declined to be taken to a hospital.
In a statement, Six Flags Great America said park security responded immediately along with Gurnee officers.
WGN News in Chicago spoke with Laurie Walker and her daughter, Grace, who were inside the park when the shooting occurred. Walker said they were waiting in line for an attraction around 7:50 p.m. when she noticed people running.
“There is an active shooter, get down, get down,” Walker said she heard someone shouting. “We didn’t know what was going on, so we get down.”
Walker and her daughter climbed two fences to get where she could call her husband. Walker told WGN she was able to leave the park a short while later.
Gurnee is in Lake County, about 5 miles south of the Wisconsin border. It’s about 20 miles north of Highland Park, where seven people died in a mass shooting during a July Fourth parade.
3 injured in shooting at amusement park near Chicago
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3 injured in shooting at amusement park near Chicago
Thousands of Australians without power after tropical cyclone hits Queensland
SYDNEY: Thousands of people in Australia's northeast state of Queensland were without power on Sunday after a tropical cyclone crossed the coast bringing heavy rain and destructive winds.
Koji, a category one cyclone, made landfall between the towns of Ayr and Bowen, about 500 km (310 miles) north of state capital Brisbane, before weakening to a tropical low, the nation's weather forecaster said.
The storm, with wind gusts of up to 95 kph (59 mph) and heavy rain, hit coastal towns including Mackay, a tourist hub and gateway to the Great Barrier Reef, it said.
Queensland state Premier David Crisafulli said around 15,000 properties had lost power due to Koji, which had also damaged property and boats, and closed roads.
Koji brought rainfall of up to 200 mm (7.8 inches) to some areas overnight and was expected to result in heavy downpours over the next 24 to 48 hours, Crisafulli said.
"There's the prospect of flooding, Queenslanders will handle that," he said in televised remarks from Brisbane.
Earlier, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described flash flooding as a "major risk" across a large stretch of Queensland's coast.
The weather forecaster said the severe weather would likely persist through Sunday before possibly easing on Monday.
Koji comes after the state was hit in March by Alfred, a downgraded tropical cyclone, brought damaging winds and heavy rains, cutting power to hundreds of thousands.
