Two dead as gunmen ‘with bombs in their car’ attack anti-Muslim cartoon contest

Two suspected gunmen have been shot dead in Texas at a contest to draw the Prophet Muhammad. The event, which was organised by the New York-based American Freedom Defense Initiative, aimed to award $10,000 (£6,500) for the best cartoon depicting the Prophet Mohammed at the venue. The Curtis Culwell Center in the Dallas suburb of Garland was put on lockdown as a result of the alert and those in attendance were evacuated after the reporting of a shooting outside the building. The local CBS affiliate said two gunmen who opened fire at an anti-Islam art exhibition and had been shot dead themselves.

We had prepared for this event, in case something like this happened.

Garland police spokesman, Joe Harn

The city of Garland said in a statement that two men drove up to the Centre and began shooting. The statement said Garland Police Department officers engaged the gunmen, who were both shot and killed. It added that the gunmen’s vehicle is believed to contain an “incendiary device." Garland police spokesman Joe Harn said the event had been monitored for several months but there had been no credible threat. The president of the American Freedom Defense Initiative, Pamela Geller, had said that she intended the event to support free speech in response to the violence over drawings of Mohammed. Geller’s group campaigned against the building of an Islamic centre near the World Trade Center site.

World Muhammad cartoon