Manhunt under way in Maine after mass shooting

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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There have been 565 mass shootings across the United States so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The number of mass shootings has "surged" since the Covid-19 pandemic began in 2020, added Reuters, with 647 occurring in 2022.

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.