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April 19th, 2013 
Peter Nolan Updated: 15:39, Friday April 19, 2013
A gunman has shot dead a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer and there are reports of gunfire and explosions in Watertown, Middlesex County, Massachusetts.
The university in Boston says the situation is ‘extremely dangerous’ and has warned students in an emergency alert on its website to stay indoors.
There are also unconfirmed reports one suspect has been taken into custody and one still at large. Police have been heard on official scanners discussion the presence of explosive devices.
An alert on MIT’s website said the gunshots started at 10:48pm on Thursday local time and that the building where the shots were fired had been ‘surrounded by responding agencies.’
A major hunt has been launched for the gunman. Police with rifles are in the streets, and search helicopters are flying above the university.
‘The shooter remains at large, police continue to search the campus. Please remain indoors until further notice,’ said an emergency alert issued by the university on its website two hours after the shooting.
MIT is in Cambridge, Massachusetts, just across the Charles River from Boston, where three people were killed and 180 injured in a double bomb attack on the city’s marathon on Monday. Authorities made no immediate link between the two incidents.
The MIT campus police officer suffered ‘multiple gunshot wounds’ when he responded to a disturbance, said Middlesex District Attorney Michael Pelgro in a statement.
The officer ‘was transported to the hospital and pronounced deceased,’ said the statement, which added that there were no other victims.
Police cordoned off a large area of the university and surrounding streets as part of the emergency. Local trains running from Cambridge to Boston were all searched by police.
MIT has about 11,000 students and is considered one of the world’s leading universities.
Source Article from http://rss.skynews.com.au/c/34485/f/628636/s/2ae5f56f/l/0L0Sskynews0N0Bau0Ctopstories0Carticle0Baspx0Did0F8648760GvId0F/story01.htm
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