US News
Woman in shooting spree kills five at US postal facility (Roundup)
By DPA
Jan 31, 2006, 19:00 GMT

San Francisco - A female former postal worker shot and killed five people and then killed herself at a California postal facility in what is believed to have been the deadliest shooting spree ever committed by a woman in the U.S.

The horrific incident took place at a mail processing plant in the quiet town of Goleta, about 150 kilometres northwest of Los Angeles, late Monday night, police said Tuesday.

Sheriff John Anderson of the Santa Barbara County Sherrif's Department said in broadcast remarks that around 80 employees were safely evacuated from the plant by police officers shortly after the incident began.

One employee was also critically wounded in the incident. Anderson said that initial police reports that six people were killed had been mistaken.

The motive for the killings was not immediately clear but Anderson said that the woman worked at the facility some two years ago.

Experts quoted in the U.S. media said the attack was the most deadly shooting spree ever committed by a woman. It was the deadliest workplace killing since 2003, when 48-year-old Doug Williams gunned down 14 co-workers, killing six, at a Lockheed Martin aircraft parts plant in Meridian, Mississippi, before turning the gun on himself.