Mass shooting at Orlando industrial park leaves ‘multiple fatalities’

A SACKED US worker returned to his old workplace with a gun and hunting knife, killing five people before taking his own life.

Police confer at the scene of a shooting in an industrial area near Orlando. Picture: John Raoux/AP

A 45-YEAR-OLD man fired from his warehouse job in April returned to his old workplace near Orlando, Florida, and fatally shot five people before killing himself, officials said.

John Robert Neumann Jr was armed with a handgun and hunting knife on Monday when he entered a business called Fiamma, which describes itself as one of the world’s largest manufacturers of awnings for recreational vehicles, according to Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings.

The assailant shot and killed five people before turning the gun on himself, Mr Demings said at a press briefing.

The assailant opened fire at a business in Orlando, Florida. Picture: Gerardo Mora/Getty Images/AFP

Three men and one woman died at the scene, and another man died at an area hospital, while seven others were not injured. There was no indication that he used the knife on his victims.

The unidentified assailant had a history of misdemeanour criminal offences but was not linked to any terror organisations, said the sheriff, who described the shootings as workplace violence.

“He was a disgruntled employee that came back to this business this morning,” Demings said. “It appears this incident has nothing to do with any global terror activities.”

"We have no indication that this subject is a participant in any type of terror organization," Sheriff says on Orlando shooting suspect pic.twitter.com/IM4ZqJLLn9

— CBS News (@CBSNews) June 5, 2017

In June 2014, Orange County deputies investigated a report that the man battered another employee at the warehouse, but no charges were brought, Mr Demings said.

Local television station WFTV on Monday interviewed a woman they identified as Shelley Adams, who said her sister was in a washroom when she “heard a bang” in the office. She emerged and saw someone on the floor.

“My boss is dead,” the worker told her sister during a phone call. Ms Adams told reporters her sister was not shot but was treated for shock.

Investigators work the scene of a multiple shooting at an area business in an industrial area of downtown Orlando, Florida. Picture: Gerardo Mora/Getty Images/AFP

The shooting comes almost a year after 49 people were killed at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando on June 12, 2016, the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history. At least 58 people were also injured.

“Over the past year, the Orlando community has been challenged like never before,” Florida Governor Rick Scott said in a statement. “I ask all Floridians to pray for the families impacted by this senseless act of violence.”

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Originally published as Mass shooting at Orlando industrial park leaves ‘multiple fatalities’