A gunman killed six people and himself during a series of shootings in several locations of Muscatine, Iowa, a waterfront city across the Mississippi River from Illinois, police said, reports Reuters.

A preliminary investigation into the gun violence indicated the shootings "stemmed from a domestic-related dispute," the Muscatine Police Department said in a statement.

According to authorities, police received the first report of gunfire at a residence at 12:12pm local time on Monday (June 1).

Officers responding to the scene found four members of the same family dead inside the home. The suspect had already fled before police arrived.

As the investigation unfolded, officers searched two additional locations, where they discovered the bodies of two more men who had been fatally shot. One victim was found at another residence, while the other was located at a nearby business establishment.

Preliminary findings indicate that all of the victims were family members of the suspected shooter.

Police identified the suspect as 52-year-old Ryan Wills McFarland. Authorities tracked him to a riverfront trail along the Mississippi River and eventually cornered him near a pedestrian bridge.

When confronted by officers, McFarland fatally shot himself with his own firearm, police said.

Muscatine Police Chief Anthony Kies described the incident as a devastating tragedy for the community.

"I have no words to adequately express the brutality of today’s events and the impact they have had on our peaceful community," he said.

Police said McFarland had a prior criminal record but emphasized that there is no ongoing threat to public safety.

The identities and ages of the victims have not yet been officially released. Authorities are continuing a detailed investigation to determine the motive behind the shootings.

END/REUTERS/ASA

At least 34 people, including two babies were killed when a contraband fuel depot exploded into flames in southern Benin near the border with Nigeria on Saturday.

According to Beninese Interior Minister Alassane Seidou, “a serious fire occurred in the town of Seme Podji. Another 20 people were seriously wounded in the incident.”

"I can't really give you the cause of the fire, but there is a large gasoline warehouse here and cars, tricycles and motorcycles come from morning to evening,” he added.

Nigeria is a main oil and gas producer where fuel smuggling is very common along its borders, particularly when the government maintains a subsidy to keep fuel prices low.

The majority of the victims were burnt and they could not be not be identified.

It is a long established fact that a reader will be distracted by the readable content of a page when looking at its layout. The point of using Lorem Ipsum is that it has a more-or-less normal distribution of letters, as opposed to using 'Content here, content here', making it look like readable English. Many desktop publishing packages and web page editors now use Lorem Ipsum as their default model text, and a search for 'lorem ipsum' will uncover many web sites still in their infancy. Various versions have evolved over the years, sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose (injected humour and the like).