At least 14 people have been shot dead during a premiere of The Dark Knight Rises in the US state of Colorado.
According to UK newspaper The Independent, there may have been two gunmen, wearing body armour and was wearing a gas mask started shooting people in the theatre about 30 minutes into the film.
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One has reportedly been arrested while a hunt is on for the other. According to Sky News reporter Brenda Stuart, the scene is still chaotic, and “police officers are taking people to hospital themselves, not waiting for ambulances.”
CBSS news reports that explosives have been found at the home of one of the suspects:
BREAKING: Explosives found at suspect’s home in Aurora.At least 14 people killed in shooting at Batman Premiere at Century 16 tonight.
— CBSDenver (@CBSDenver) July 20, 2012
The news quickly spread across Twitter, where most expressed shock at what had happened:
omg what a crazy world we live in~ Mass shooting at Batman premiere in Colorado | News.com.au: news.com.au/world/mass-sho…
— Cecilia Ng (@ceciliase7en) July 20, 2012
RIP to all the people who were killed by a guy dressed as batman at a batman screening in Denver 🙁
— Daniel J. Thomson(@djthomson) July 20, 2012
Shocking News from the Film premier of Batman in Colorado…. RIP those that have lost their lives #RIPyfrog.com/nzwfyjrnj
— Carl (@AirForce_Carl) July 20, 2012
Overwhelming breaking news morning – 10 dead in shooting at Batman screening in Colorado and (unconfirmed) rumours of Assad stepping down.
— mark little (@marklittlenews) July 20, 2012
#offtopic Terrible news: Seven children reported to have been killed at Batman premiere in Colorado bit.ly/PfDaMw
— Lady Gaga Daily (@gagadaily) July 20, 2012
TEN people have died after a gunman opened fire at a showing of the latest Batman film.children are among the dead. thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/n…
— J②J②(@JoJoMaggotmummy) July 20, 2012
Horrible news. Live news feed on the shootings from Batman movie screening in Colorado. At least 14 killed confirmed. 9news.com/video/9newsonl…
— Shervin Pishevar (@shervin) July 20, 2012
Feeling sick reading about the cinema shooting in Denver – telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews… – vile, and so sad.
— James Whatley (@Whatleydude) July 20, 2012
One user wondered whether the shooting may have been inspired by Batman arch-enemy The Joker, portrayed by Heath Ledger in the previous film:
Masked gunman kills 10, injures 40 in US theatre screening the Batman movie The Dark Knight Rises. Inspired by the Joker?
— Abhijit Majumder (@abhijitmajumder) July 20, 2012
Another compared the gunmen to the current movie’s villain Bane:
somebody tryina get their Bane on for real. :/ “@guardian: Masked gunman shoots 10 dead at Batman screening in Denver gu.com/p/396g3/tw”
— Just Blaze (@JustBlaze) July 20, 2012
A Reddit user who claimed to have at the theatre posted the following account of what happened:
Boyfriend and I have evacuated safe and sound. The shooting began during a gunfight scene in the movie, and at first, we thought it was special effects when smoke rose up. When shots happened again and people began to run, we thought something was up. A guy ran in and shouted there was a gunman in the building, and the alarms to emergency evacuate started to go off.
I now know what tear gas feels like. I’ve never had to ‘get down’ with a police officer screaming at us. This is the most fucked up night of my short life. I need an army of kitten photos stat.
