Two in Alaska Coast Guard Shot Dead

Police fear a killer is on the loose on Alaska's Kodiak Island. Two members of the local Coast Guard were shot dead at their work stations at a base on the island in what officials say appears to be a double homicide, reports the Anchorage Daily News. The rest of the 60 enlisted personnel and civilians who work at the communications base have been accounted for, and police have not yet identified a suspect.

Officials have told the 6,300 residents of Kodiak city, which lies some eight miles from the base, to remain calm but vigilant. A team of FBI agents is flying down from Anchorage, 250 miles north, to investigate. "We are deeply saddened that we lost two shipmates," the base's commanding officer said in a statement. "We are going to do everything we can to look after the families of victims, to take care of them, and to protect the residents, and other Coast Guard employees in Kodiak." (More Coast Guard stories.)