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Two people were fatally killed in a community of mountains in the northwest state of the United States, while responding to a brush fire, the officials say.
The Kootenai County Sheriff’s Bureau Robert Norris said that at least one suspect drew on the police with a high power rifle near the city of Alene’s heart.
“We actively take elite shooters when we speak,” said Sheriff Norris, adding that the officers had reported bullets from various directions. Residents were invited to avoid the scene, which is on Canfield Mountain.
FBI deputy director Dan Bongino said the agents “would provide tactical and operational support,” Governor Brad Little said that “several heroic firefighters” had been attacked.
“This is an odious direct assault on our brave firefighters,” posted the governor on X. “I ask all the Idahoans to pray for them and their families while we are waiting to find out more.”
He added: “While this situation is still developing, please stay away from the region to allow police and firefighters to do their job.”
The Sheriff Norris said at a press conference on Sunday: “We do not know if there are one, two, three or four” shooters on the scene, about four miles (6.5 km) north of the center of Coeur d’Alene.
“We do not know how many suspects are up there, and we do not know how many victims there are,” he said.
The authorities thought that the two people killed were firefighters.
“I hope someone has a clear blow and is able to neutralize, because they are not at that time showing proof of wanting to go,” added the sheriff.
“If these individuals are not neutralized quickly, this will probably be a several days operation.”
He told journalists that there were civilians on Canfield Mountain, who is crisscrosing of hiking and cycling, so he would be sure to assume that “others were still up there.
The call about the brush fire arrived around 1:22 p.m. local time (19:22 GMT) Sunday. At 2:00 p.m., firefighters reported shots.
The brush fire still burns in the middle of the shooting.
Local firefighter chief Pat Riley told KHQ television station that he had been “broken” by the attack.
The Kootenai County Emergency Management Office sent an alert asking people to avoid the area around the start of the Canfield Mountain and Nettleton Gulch Road trail.
Alene’s heart resident Linda Tiger, 80, told the BBC that she had been shocked by the shooting.
“It has never happened here,” said Ms. Tiger, who has lived in the city for almost 30 years. “But it shows that no one is immune to this kind of mental sadness.”
She said she stayed inside because “Alene’s whole heart is supposed to be sheltered in place, but I see people walking because they have not heard the news”.
The city of approximately 56,000 people is near the border with the state of Washington.
