HESSTON, Kan. -- Harvey County Sheriff T. Walton says 4 to 7 people, including the shooter at Excel Industries in Hesston has been killed, CBS affiliate KWCH reports.
Walton said the shooter was an employee, and he was killed by authorities.
Walton said there are four to five crime scenes in this case.
According to the Excel Industries website, they are a manufacturer of turf care products such as lawn mowers.
Witnesses have described a suspect vehicle as a gray and red pickup truck. A little before 5:30 p.m., dispatchers indicated a suspect had been disabled, KWCH reported.
Martin Espinoza, who works at Excel, was in the plant during the shooting. He heard people yelling to others to get out of the building, then heard popping, then saw the shooter, a co-worker he described as typically pretty calm.
Espinoza told The Associated Press the shooter pointed a gun at him and pulled the trigger, but the gun was empty. At that point, the shooter got a different gun and Martin took off running.
"I looked right at him and he looked right at me," Espinoza said.
Hesston is a community of about 3,700 residents about 35 miles north of Wichita.
Walton said the FBI and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation had been called in to assist.
A spokeswoman for the Kansas City office of the FBI did not immediately return a call seeking comment Thursday night.
"This is just a horrible incident. ... There's going to be a lot of sad people before this is all over," Walton said.
A college near a Kansas company where authorities are responding to a shooting has been locked down.
Jim Mason, Hesston College's director of facilities, says faculty and staff are being kept indoors as a precaution until it's clear a suspect is in custody. The lockdown began at about 5:20 p.m. local time Thursday.
Hesston is a few blocks from the Excel Industries plant where a Harvey County sheriff's dispatcher says a shooting occurred.
Hesston College has about 450 students and is affiliated with the Mennonite Church USA.
The shooting comes less than a week after authorities say a man opened fire at several locations in Kalamazoo, Michigan, leaving six people dead and two severely wounded.
