'Multiple fatalities' in California shooting, suspect dead: police

Multiple people were killed in a shooting Wednesday at a rail yard in California's Bay Area, police said, the latest instance of deadly gun violence in the United States.

"I can't confirm the exact number of injuries and fatalities. But I will tell you that there are multiple injuries and multiple fatalities in this case," Russell Davis, a Santa Clara County Sheriff's deputy, told journalists, adding that the shooter was dead.

Police rushed to the light rail public transportation facility in San Jose -- a Silicon Valley tech hub of almost a million people -- after receiving reports of an "active shooter," the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office said in a tweet.

It was not immediately clear if the shooter was a worker at the facility, but police said some of the victims were employees at the site.

The United States has a long and painful history of deadly gun violence, in the form of a steady daily toll of shootings as well as high-profile mass killings that have targeted schools, work places and shopping centers.