NEW YORK (Reuters) - A man opened fire in a building where services are provided to immigrants in the New York town of Binghamton on Friday and killed 13 people before killing himself, ABC News reported.
New York Governor David Paterson confirmed that a number of people had been killed. ABC News, citing federal and state authorities, said 26 people were also wounded.
There was no official confirmation of the death toll or the gunman's fate.
Other local media earlier reported between four and 13 dead in the incident in Binghamton, about 150 miles northwest of New York City.
"This is a tragic day for New York. While the situation is still developing and details are being gathered, we do know that a gunman entered the American Civic Association in Binghamton this morning and that there are fatalities," Paterson said in a statement.
The area was surrounded by police with rifles, some carrying shields. Some local media reports said the suspected shooter was Asian and that authorities requested a Vietnamese translator to speak with him.
As many as 41 people were inside the building when a man entered and started shooting, WBNG television news said, citing police scanners. It said some fled to a basement and more than a dozen were hiding in a closet, adding that emergency dispatchers had been in contact with people inside.
Four people were removed from the American Civic Association building on stretchers and taken to hospitals, the Press & Sun-Bulletin newspaper reported on its website.
Others came out on foot.
"About 15 or so employees of the Civic Association came out crying with their hands behind their heads and they were escorted by the police and they took them to ambulances and took them away," a witness told WNBF radio.
The American Civic Association building is used to teach English and provide other services to recent immigrants to the United States who are preparing for U.S. citizenship.
(Reporting by Daniel Trotta, Claudia Parsons, Joan Gralla and Ellen Wulfhorst; Editing by David Storey)