**A lone gunman has killed and injured a number of people in central Virginia, police in the US state say.**They say more than 100 policemen have surrounded a male suspect in a wooded area just outside of Appomattox.
The violence began shortly after noon on Tuesday local time when an injured man was found on a rural stretch of road, the Associated Press reports.
A police helicopter that responded to the incident was fired on and forced to land with a ruptured fuel tank.
The officers on board were not injured.
Police said at a media briefing that officers from across the state had been brought in to the area.
“We have him [the gunman] contained, we’re fairly sure of that,” they said.
A number of people living in the sealed-off area have been evacuated.
It is not known what prompted the shootings.
Appomattox is about 160km (100 miles) south-west of Virginia’s capital Richmond.
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