UPDATE #2: Reports now saying that the number of fatalities is twelve. Ten died on the scene, while two died later in hospital. Suspect has been named as 24-year-old James Holmes.

UPDATE: 14 are now reported to have been killed and 50 have been injured. [via]

A masked gunman shot dead 14 people and wounded 50 others at a showing of new Batman movie “The Dark Knight Rises” at a movie theater in the U.S. city of Denver, local radio station KOA reported on Friday, citing witnesses.

The radio station said a figure in a gas mask had opened fire at the late-night showing in a mall in the suburb of Aurora and set off a smoke or tear gas bomb. It said initial police estimates were of 30-40 injured.

Dozens of police were at the scene, CNN footage showed.

KOA said authorities were evacuating the area while they checked if there was an exploding device there.

CNN quoted one witness as saying he saw a “guy slowly making his way up the stairs and firing, picking random people”.

It said local hospitals were alerted to a “mass casualty incident”.

“Big-time Hollywood filmmaking at its most massively accomplished, this last installment of Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy makes everything in the rival Marvel universe look thoroughly silly and childish. Entirely enveloping and at times unnerving in a relevant way one would never have imagined, as a cohesive whole this ranks as the best of Nolan’s trio, even if it lacks — how could it not? — an element as unique as Heath Ledger’s immortal turn in The Dark Knight. It’s a blockbuster by any standard.”