(By Reuters and The Associated Press) A man and a woman suspected of taking part in a shooting attack that killed 14 people and wounded 17 at a Southern California social services agency on Wednesday died in a shootout with police hours later, authorities said.

Authorities on Thursday were working to determine why a man and a woman opened fire at a holiday party of his co-workers in Southern California, killing 14 people and wounding 17 in an attack that appeared to have been planned.

Syed Rizwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27, who had a 6-month-old daughter together, were killed in a shootout with police after Wednesday’s bloodshed at the Inland Regional Center in the city of San Bernardino, a social services agency where Farook worked as an inspector.

Officers blocked a dark SUV that appeared to be riddled with bullet holes on a residential street in San Bernardino. Shots were fired, and a suspect was down, police said.

The shooting rampage at a holiday party on the campus of a social services agency marked the deadliest U.S. gun violence since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012, in which 27 people, including the gunman, were killed.

Authorities also detained an individual seen running away from the vehicle, but investigators were not immediately sure that person was involved in the case, Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said at a news conference.

 

Police shed no light on a motive for the nation’s latest mass shooting, which came five days after a gunman opened fire at Planned Parenthood in Colorado, killing three.

“They came prepared to do what they did, as if they were on a mission,” Burguan said, noting the attackers carried long guns – which can mean rifles or shotguns.

Witnesses said several people locked themselves in their offices, desperately waiting to be rescued by police, after gunfire erupted at the Inland Regional Center, which serves people with developmental disabilities.

The attack took place in a conference area where the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health was renting space to hold a banquet, said Marybeth Feild, president and CEO of the centre. She said the building houses at least 25 employees as well as a library and conference centre.

FBI agents and other law enforcement authorities converged on the centre and searched room to room for the attacker or attackers, San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said. But he said they might have escaped in an SUV.

No weapons were recovered at the centre, though authorities were investigating unidentified items in the building and brought in bomb squads, Burguan said.

People gather at San Bernardino Golf Course after being evacuated from the scene of a shooting in San Bernardino, Calif. on Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2015. Police responded to reports of an active shooter at a social services facility. (Micah Escamilla/Los Angeles News Group via AP)

Ten of the wounded were hospitalized in critical condition, and three were in serious condition, San Bernardino Fire Chief Tom Hannemann said. Police cautioned that the number of people killed and wounded were preliminary estimates that could change.

San Bernardino police spokesman Sgt. Vicki Cervantes told The Associated Press there were reports from witnesses of one to three gunmen.

As the manhunt went on, stores, office buildings and at least one school were locked down in the city of 214,000 people about 60 miles east of Los Angeles, and roads were blocked off.

Triage units were set up outside the centre, and people were seen being wheeled away on stretchers. Others walked quickly from a building with their hands up. They were searched by police before being reunited with loved ones.

President Barack Obama was briefed on the attack by his homeland security adviser.

He said it was too early to know the shooters’ motives, but urged the country to take steps to reduce the frequency of mass shootings. He told CBS that stricter gun laws, including stronger background checks, would make the country safer.

“The one thing we do know is that we have a pattern now of mass shootings in this country that has no parallel anywhere else in the world, and there’s some steps we could take, not to eliminate every one of these mass shootings, but to improve the odds that they don’t happen as frequently,” Obama said.

Terry Petit said his daughter works at the centre, where social workers find jobs, housing, transportation and provide programming for people who have disabilities ranging from autism to cerebral palsy to epilepsy. He got a text from her saying she was hiding in the building after hearing gunshots. Petit choked back tears as he read the texts for reporters outside the centre.

He said she wrote:

“People shot. In the office waiting for cops. Pray for us. I am locked in an office.”

Sherry Esquerra was searching for her daughter and son-in-law, both of whom work at the centre. She said her daughter helps “very disabled” children and “gets all the services she possibly could for these kids.”

“I just don’t understand why somebody would come in and start shooting,” Esquerra said.

She last saw her daughter at Thanksgiving and planned to see her Friday. When she calls her phone now, “Nothing. I just get her message. Straight to voicemail.”

Marcos Aguilera’s wife was in the building when the gunfire erupted. He said a shooter entered the building next to his wife’s office and opened fire.

“They locked themselves in her office. They seen bodies on the floor,” Aguilera told KABC-TV, adding that his wife was able to get out of the building unharmed.

The social services centre has two large buildings that require a

badge to get in, said Sheela Stark, an Inland Regional Center board member. However, the conference room where many public events take place – including the banquet on Wednesday – is usually left open when visitors are expected.