AURORA (Colorado), Jan 5: Four people, including the gunman, were killed following a hostage-taking incident on Saturday in Aurora, Colorado, the same town where a man shot dead 12 people and wounded 58 more in a movie theatre last July, police told reporters.

After nearly six hours of failed negotiations, police killed the gunman as he opened fire on them through a second-storey window of a townhouse where he had barricaded himself, said Aurora police spokeswoman Cassidee Carlson.

It was unclear whether officers entered the home or shot the man through the window. KUSA television reported that he was killed after police fired tear gas and entered the home, where they found three more bodies.—Reuters