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Charleston hostage situation over; gunman wounded

Police gather near the scene of a reported shooting in Charleston, S.C., on Thursday, Aug.24, 2017. Authorities say a disgruntled employee shot one person and is holding hostages in a restaurant in an area that is popular with tourists. Mayor John Tecklenburg said at a news conference that the shooting was not an act of terrorism or racism. (Grace Beahm Alford /The Post And Courier via AP)
Police gather near the scene of a reported shooting in Charleston, S.C., on Thursday, Aug.24, 2017. Authorities say a disgruntled employee shot one person and is holding hostages in a restaurant in an area that is popular with tourists. Mayor John Tecklenburg said at a news conference that the shooting was not an act of terrorism or racism. (Grace Beahm Alford /The Post And Courier via AP) Police gather near the scene of a reported shooting in Charleston, S.C., on Thursday, Aug.24, 2017. Authorities say a disgruntled employee shot one person and is holding hostages in a restaurant in an area that is popular with tourists. Mayor John Tecklenburg said at a news conference that the shooting was not an act of terrorism or racism. (Grace Beahm Alford /The Post And Courier via AP)

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) -The mayor says a hostage situation in a Charleston, South Carolina, restaurant has ended with the gunman being shot by police.

Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg said the restaurant employee shot by the gunman Thursday has died.

Interim Charleston Police Chief Jerome Taylor says all the hostages at Virginia’s restaurant were rescued safely. He didn’t say how many there were.

Tecklenburg says the man who took the hostages is in critical condition.

Authorities did not release the names of the gunman or the man killed.

Taylor says the restaurant on tourist-heavy King Street was packed at lunchtime and his officers helped rescue the wounded man and a number of diners.