Manhunt under way in Maine after mass shooting

Police name suspect as at least 16 people are feared to have been killed and dozens injured

Maine shooting
Armed police officers guard the ambulance entrance to the Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston on Thursday morning
(Image credit: JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images))

At least 16 people are reported to have been killed in gun attacks at a restaurant and a bowling alley in Maine.

On Wednesday evening, a gunman walked into a bowling alley in Lewiston – Maine's second biggest city – and fatally shot at least seven people before moving on to a nearby bar, according to Sheriff Eric Samson of Androscoggin County, who was quoted by The New York Times.  

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Residents in several towns in southern Maine were under "shelter-in-place" orders this morning as police continued to search for the man suspected of carrying out the killings. 

Police named 40-year-old Robert Card as a "person of interest" in their investigation and have appealed to the public to help identify him. Card "should be considered armed and dangerous", police said. 

"Card was also reported to have been committed to a mental health facility for two weeks during summer 2023 and subsequently released," said a notice from the Maine Information & Analysis Center, according to Reuters.

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 Sorcha Bradley is a writer at The Week and a regular on “The Week Unwrapped” podcast. She worked at The Week magazine for a year and a half before taking up her current role with the digital team, where she mostly covers UK current affairs and politics. Before joining The Week, Sorcha worked at slow-news start-up Tortoise Media. She has also written for Sky News, The Sunday Times, the London Evening Standard and Grazia magazine, among other publications. She has a master’s in newspaper journalism from City, University of London, where she specialised in political journalism.