Ten Shot, Two Dead at Empire State Building

Two people are dead, including the gunman, and at least one other person was shot by a disgruntled employee who opened fire on a rush-hour street crowded with tourists and pedestrians outside the Empire State Building Friday morning, police said.

Police responding to reports of shots opened fire on the suspect, killing him, sources said. At least eight others were hurt in a possible stampede as thousands of terrified bystanders tried to flee.

Three sources said the gunman was a disgruntled employee who was fired Thursday from his job inside the building.

Friday morning, the gunman tried to enter the Empire State Building, but security officials would not let him in, sources said. He then waited for his boss outside the building, apparerently to target the boss in a revenge attack, sources said. Sources said the boss and the shooter had been having problems for several weeks.

At least nine people were hurt, but not all of them are shooting victims, an emergency official at the scene tells NBC 4 New York. Seven people were taken to Bellevue Hospital and two others to Cornell, the FDNY said.

Sources said many of the gunshot injuries appear to be consistent with buckshot wounds.

“Pop, pop, pop, pop, and I ran into my office, I was very shaken up,” one witness said. Almost immediately, she said, police “were coming from everwhere — the sirens, they were coming from everywhere. This is serious.”

Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly were scheduled to hold a news conference at 11 a.m.

Authorities said emergency personnel received a call about the shooting at Fifth Avenue and 34th Street just after 9 a.m. and that units were on the scene within minutes. The FBI is also on the scene.

“We have multiple people shot in front of Empire State Building,” an operator said over the police radio Friday morning, according to audio provided by radioreference.com. “We have two civilians shot. The perp is shot.”

The conditions of those shot also weren’t known. The body of the gunman remained on the street, under a white sheet, in front of Heartland Brewery at least two hours after the shooting.

Anyone traveling in the area is advised to expect road closures and detours. The stretch of 34th Street between Madison and Fifth avenues is closed, as well as Fifth Avenue between 42nd and 33rd streets.

In 1997, a 69-year-old man opened fire on the observation deck of the iconic landmark, killing one person and wounding six before shooting himself in the head. The gunman, Ali Abu Kamal, was taken to the hospital, where he died more than five hours after self-inflicting the fatal wound.

Law enforcement officials believe the 1997 attack was premeditated.

Officials at the Empire State Building declined to comment, except to say the building remained fully operational.