July 9, 2003	Wednesday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 8,1424

WASHINGTON July 8: A gunman on Tuesday shot dead five people and wounded eight more, some critically, before apparently killing himself inside a plant of military aircraft-maker Lockheed Martin in Meridian, Mississippi, local police said.

The killer, believed to have been an employee of the plant, was armed with a shotgun and a semi-automatic rifle as he went on his killing spree at about 9:30 a.m. local time, Lauderdale County Sheriff Billy Sollie told CNN. He died of a gunshot wound that appeared to have been self- inflicted.—dpa