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The gunman who killed 10 people in a rampage at a dance club after a Lunar New Year celebration in this predominantly Asian.

A gunman killed 10 people in a ballroom dance studio amid Lunar New Year celebrations and then may have unsuccessfully tried to attack a second ballroom, authorities said Sunday. An urgent search was underway in the Los Angeles area to find the suspect.

Suspect

Law enforcement officials in the southern California city of Torrance are in a standoff with a suspect believed to be connected to a mass shooting that left 10 dead and 10 wounded in Monterey Park overnight,

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said that between 20 and 30 minutes after the shooting at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park on Saturday night, which left five women and five men dead and 10 other people wounded, a man with a gun entered the Lai Lai. Ballroom in the nearby Alhambra. Luna said it’s not yet clear if the events are connected.

“We believe that there is an incident that may be related,” Luna said of the Alhambra incident. “We’re not there yet, but it’s definitely on our radar screen.”

Luna said a “male Asian suspect” entered the Alhambra club with a “firearm” and that people took the gun from him before he fled. Investigators are interested in a white cargo van that was seen in the area and that police have the Alhambra gun.

Luna declined to say what type of weapon was recovered at Alhambra, saying investigators believe the firearm used at Monterey Park was not an “assault rifle.”

The massacre, which derailed Lunar New Year celebrations and struck fear into the large Asian-American communities of Monterey Park and Alhambra, was the nation’s fifth mass murder this month.

Shooting

Monterey Park is a city of approximately 60,000 in far east Los Angeles and is comprised primarily of first-generation Asian immigrants from China or Asian-Americans. The shooting occurred in the heart of its downtown area, where red lanterns decorated the streets for Lunar New Year festivities. A police car was parked near a large banner proclaiming “Happy Year of the Rabbit!”

The celebration at Monterey Park is one of the largest in California, drawing tens of thousands throughout the day.

Two days of festivities were planned, which have been attended by up to 100,000 people in recent years. But officials canceled Sunday’s events after the shooting.

Tony Lai, 35, of Monterey Park was stunned when he went for a walk early in the morning and learned that the noises he heard at night were gunshots.

“I thought maybe it was fireworks. I thought maybe it had something to do with Lunar New Year,” he said. “And we don’t even have a lot of fireworks here. It is rare to see this. It’s really safe here. We are right in the middle of the city, but it is very safe.”

Police investigate possible link to Alhambra shooting

Meyer said investigators were reviewing reports that an attempted shooting at a ballroom in Alhambra, a couple of miles north of Monterey Park, could be linked. Investigators were on the scene, she said. No injuries were immediately reported. The mayoress of Alhambra, Sasha Renée Pérez, tweeted her condolences for the victims in the neighboring city.

“For this tragedy to occur on Lunar New Year weekend makes this especially painful. Monterey Park is home to one of the largest (Asian-Pacific Islander American) communities in the country,” she said. “This is a time when residents should celebrate with family, friends and loved ones, without fear of gun violence.”