12 killed in shooting at US army base

Twelve people have been killed and at least 31 wounded when a soldier unleashed an indiscriminate shooting at Fort Hood US Army Base in Texas.

The shooter has been captured alive and two other suspects have also been arrested. Police have said the motive behind the shooting remains unclear.

The shooting began around 1:30 p.m. local time on Thursday at the world's biggest military base, Fort Hood in Texas.

The head of the base confirmed the details of what is the worst mass shooting at a US military base.

BOob Cone, Fort Hood Commanding General, said, "At approximately 1330 hours today a shooter entered what we call the soldier readiness facility, where soldiers who are reading to deploy go for last minute medical check ups and dental treatment, etcetera."

The shooter is believed to be Major Malik Nadal Hasan, a 39-year-old Army psychiatrist at the base.

Authorities said immediately after the shootings that they had killed Hasan. But later in the evening they recanted and said that he was alive and in stable condition at a hospital.

Investigators are trying to determine if Hasan is his birth name, or if he changed his name and converted to Islam at some point in his life.

Fort Hood remains in lock down. Other bases around the US have stepped up their security in the wake of the shooting.

BOob Cone, Fort Hood Commanding General, said, "The challenge that we face right now is the installation is locked down, in many cases a lot of our facilities, of our families, children are locked in the facilities and we are making a call right now as to determine whether the situation is at a conclusion such that we can release people and get them back to their homes."

Covering nearly 550 square kilometers, Fort Hood is a prime point of deployment for US operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is also home to about 50-thousand troops and their families. The facility contains seven elementary schools and two middle schools.