Police in the Australian state of Queensland said on Thursday that three people had died following a gun shooting on a rural property.At 9 a.m., police were called to the scene in Bogie, a small town about 1,200 km north of state capital Brisbane and home to around 200 people, responding to reports of multiple people being shot, reports Xinhua news agency.
"We are actively searching the area and commencing our investigations into what the circumstances were and how it came to be that these people had been shot," acting superintendent of Queensland police Tom Armitt told reporters.
"At this stage, we are at very, very early stages of this investigation. We do not know who is responsible."Three people were found dead and a fourth was flown to the hospital in critical condition.Upon surveying the surrounding area police deemed the area safe.
Investigations into the circumstances surrounding the incident are ongoing.Supt Armitt described Thursday's shooting as an "extremely rare event".Australia has some of the toughest gun laws in the world, introduced after a lone gunman murdered 35 people in Port Arthur, Tasmania in 1996.
Since then, there have been only three mass shootings, defined in Australia as those resulting in at least four deaths, excluding the perpetrator.