Mason County Sheriff’s Chief Criminal Deputies Russ Osterhout, left, and Ryan Spurling, right, stand on a road near the scene of a fatal shooting Friday, Feb. 26, 2016, near Belfair, Washington.

Four people, including children, were shot dead Friday in a rural town in the U.S. state of Washington by a man who then turned the gun on himself, police said.

Ryan Spurling, spokesman for the Mason County Sheriff’s Office, said the unidentified man killed himself after a three-hour standoff.

“The individual shot four people, including children, and then after a standoff shot himself,” Spurling told AFP.

Local news reports, quoting officials, said the gunman may have killed his wife and children. They said another child had managed to escape.

Spurling said the victims were found in one of about 11 outlying buildings on the property.

He said the gunman had directly called a police officer he knew in the early morning hours, and SWAT officers and other police rushed to the site.

They tried to negotiate with the man for about three hours before he finally walked out of the home and shot himself.

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