‘Significant Tragedy’

Four Children, Three Adults Found Dead in Australian Mass Shooting

Nation’s deadliest gun incident since tough controls imposed after 1996 massacre.

Seven people, including four children, have been found dead at a rural property in Western Australia, in an incident police are treating as a murder-suicide and mass shooting. The bodies were discovered Friday in the town of Osmington, 280km south of Perth. It’s Australia’s worst mass shooting since a massacre in Tasmania claimed the lives of 35 people in 1996, shocking the nation and changing the nation’s gun laws. “The bodies of two adults were located outside [and] five bodies were located inside a building on the rural property. It appears that gunshot wounds are there, but I don’t want to go further than that,” said WA Police Commissioner Chris Dawson. He added: “The loss of any life is tragic, but four children and three adults—this is a significant tragedy.” A friend of the family told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. a woman named Katrina Miles and her four children were among the seven victims, and said Miles’ parents, whose names are listed on the property title as Peter and Cynda Miles, were also killed in the incident.