A gunman has opened fire on the
police headquarters in the US city of Dallas, before fleeing the scene
in what appeared to be an armoured vehicle.
A police chase led to a
tense standoff in a car park for several hours, until police shot the
suspect through the front windshield of the van.
Police say the suspect is dead, but have not confirmed the man's identity.
Earlier, two bombs detonated outside the Dallas police HQ in Texas, and two more bombs were found in the van.
The motive for the attack is not clear. No officers have been hurt.
Initially, police quoted witnesses as saying that as many as four
suspects were involved in the initial shooting at about 00:30 (05:30GMT)
on Saturday.
However, Dallas Police Chief David Brown subsequently said he believed only one gunman was involved.
He said that following the shooting, the suspect fled in the van, ramming a police car.
A police chase ended in a car park in Hutchins, about nine miles (14km) from central Dallas.
The van, which has been disabled using a police rifle, appeared to have gun ports built into its sides.
Attack timeline
00:30 Shots fired at Dallas Police headquarters by a gunman
Suspect in armoured van exchanges gunfire with officers, rams a squad car, then flees
00:44 Van is chased to a car park in Hutchins and there is another exchange of gunfire. Squad cars are again rammed
Suspect refuses to leave van but tells police that his name is James Boulware
04:30 One of four bags left at police HQ explodes while being moved by robot
05:07 Police sniper shoots at suspect through windscreen
Police say the suspect is a white male, but his identity has not been confirmed.
Mr
Brown said the suspect had given his name as James Boulware, and
officers had attended three incidents of domestic violence involving a
man with that name in the past.
"The suspect has told our
negotiators that we took his child and we accused him of being a
terrorist, and that he's going to blow us up. And then cut off
negotiations," Mr Brown told a news conference.
At 05:07, police snipers shot through the front windshield of the van, Mr Brown said.
Police then sent in a robot equipped with a camera to confirm that the
suspect had died. Two pipe bombs were also found in the vehicle.
Residents near the police headquarters had been evacuated as a
precaution while specialist teams dealt with the explosives left nearby.
One of the bags exploded as a robot tried to move it.
Dallas
police said they successfully detonated another device found under a
police truck outside the headquarters, while a third package found in a
rubbish container had been cleared and was not an explosive.
Maj Max Geron from Dallas police said one officer searching for explosives had almost tripped over one of the bags that exploded.
"Some officers say we are very lucky. I believe we are blessed that our officers survived this ordeal," Mr Brown said.
Joshua Guilbuad, who lives near the police headquarters, told the BBC he was woken by the gunshots.
"It sounded like approximately 200 gunshots going off across the street."
He
said police told him and his flatmates to evacuate the building and
shortly afterwards there was "a huge explosion which shook the glass in
the windows".
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