US police officers killed in Baton Rouge shooting

At least three police officers and a suspect have been shot and killed in Baton Rouge, the second largest city in the US state of Louisiana. 

The officers in Baton Rouge were responding to a call of a man with a gun when shots were fired. 

Two Baton Rouge police officers and one sheriff's deputy were killed.

One gunman is dead and police believe he was the only one involved in the attack, Mike Edmonson, superintendent of the Louisiana State Police, said in a press conference.

"We do not have an active shooter scenario in Baton Rouge," Edmonson said.

It was not immediately clear whether there was a link between the shootings and the recent unrest over the police killings of black men in Baton Rouge and Minnesota.

Police did not give any information about a possible motive.

In an interview with national broadcaster NBC, Baton Rouge Mayor Kip Holden confirmed that three officers had been killed in the shooting near the city's police headquarters on Sunday.

Three other officers were reportedly injured and hospitalised. 

Al Jazeera reported that one eyewitness had seen a "man dressed all in black" and that he "started firing indiscriminately between a service station and a convenience store".

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards described the incident as "an unspeakable and unjustified attack on all of us". 

He said in a statement: "Rest assured, every resource available to the State of Louisiana will be used to ensure the perpetrators are swiftly brought to justice."  

US President Barack Obama described the incident as the "work of cowards". 

Republican presumptive candidate Donald Trump, writing on Facebook, demanded "law and order" following the shooting incident.
 
Baton Rouge became the scene of large protests against police brutality after officers shot dead 37-year-old Alton Sterling on July 5.

Police identified Micah Xavier Johnson, 25, as the suspect and said he had set out to kill white people. Police shot and killed Johnson after the incident.

SOURCE: Aljazeera