Breaking news: ‘Active shooting’ underway in Austin with one fatality and multiple injuries

THERE is an active shooter situation underway in Austin, Texas with multiple victims and at least one woman reported killed.

“Active shooter incident downtown, multiple victims. Stay away from downtown,” Austin police said in a message on Twitter on Sunday.

The shootings took place at approximately 2am in the populous American city, with different incidents attributed to the same shooter at varying locations in the downtown area.

A woman in her early thirties is confirmed dead and it is believed that the assailant remains at large, despite police securing the targeted areas.

While attacks involving firearms are extremely common in the US, police and anti-terrorist units are on high alert following the recent mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida which saw 49 killed in the nation’s worst ever incident of its kind, perpetrated by an Islamic extremist who pledged allegiance to Daesh.