DHAKA: A gunman carrying homemade explosives shot dead two people at a popular shopping mall near Washington on Saturday before killing himself.

The US police said, reports gulfnews.com.

Investigators were grappling for a motive but said that they had ‘tentatively identified’ the gunman, who had ‘a large amount of ammunition’ still on and around him when officers found his body in a store alongside the two victims at the upscale Columbia Mall in Maryland.

‘Because of concerns about any other weapons he may have or explosives, we are approaching this with an abundance of caution,’ Howard County Police Chief Bill McMahon said.

We’re getting assistance from some of our federal partners and making sure there are no explosives on the body of the deceased.’

Police later tweeted that a search of the gunman’s bag turned up two crude devices ‘that appeared to be attempt at making explosives. Both disabled’.

They did not immediately reveal the identity of the gunman, who they said appeared to have killed himself with a shotgun, and special units continued to comb the mall late into the night.

BDST: 1853 HRS, JAN 26, 2014