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Suspect at large after killing passenger on San Francisco-bound train

Xinhua, January 11, 2016 Adjust font size:

Police on Sunday were searching for a suspect who shot dead a seated passenger on a San Francisco-bound train and fled when it stopped at a station east of San Francisco.

The incident took place Saturday night, and police were alerted around 7:50 p.m. local time.

The suspect, described by police as a black man with a slim build, bald head and wearing a green hooded jacket, jeans, red-and-white boxer shorts and tan military boots, fled the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) train at the West Oakland station.

Authorities did not identify the victim early Sunday, and BART police Lt. Aaron Ledford said the dead man "was in possession of some sort of knife."

A BART spokesman said on Sunday there is no evidence the shooting was terrorism-related.

However, the Oakland Tribune reported, riders thought it was a terrorist attack as multiple shots were fired. "Everyone just got down on the ground. People were screaming. It was chaos," Brad Chapin, a psychology student from San Francisco, was quoted as saying. "We didn't know if there were terrorists there or what."

Ledford said the fatal shooting was believed to be the first aboard a BART train since a man was killed on a train during the 1990s. Enditem