Men Shot Dead At Contest To Draw Cartoons Of Prophet Mohammed

An unknown men opened fire on a security officer outside the competition venue in Garland, a suburb of Dallas; two of the gunmen have been shot dead in Texas at a contest to draw cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.

Police returned fire, killing the pair, and bomb squad officers were called in to search their vehicle as a precaution, authorities said.

The contest, at the Curtis Culwell Center, was organised by the New York-based American Freedom Defense Initiative, which aimed to award $10,000 for the cartoon judged the best.

The gunmen had driven up as the event was due to end.

Officer Joe Harn, a spokesman for the Garland Police Department, said: "Because of the situation of what was going on today and the history of what we've been told has happened at other events like this, we are considering their car (is) possibly containing a bomb."

Kim Everett, from the Garland News, said there was a half-mile exclusion zone around the centre.

Mr Harn said the event had been monitored for several months but there had been no credible threat.

Depictions of Mohammed are considered insulting to many followers of Islam.

According to mainstream Islamic tradition, any physical depiction of the prophet - even a respectful one - is considered blasphemous.

In January, 12 people were killed in Paris when the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo were stormed by jihadist brothers.

The president of the American Freedom Defense Initiative, Pamela Geller, had said that she intended the event to support free speech in response to the violence over drawings of Mohammed.