Law enforcement officials have swarmed and entered a white van that officials suspect was driven by a gunman who opened fire on a southern California ballroom dance studio, killing 10 people and wounding 10 more.

Police surrounded the van with tactical vehicles and bomb squad trucks for hours on Sunday before going in. A person’s body appeared to be slumped over the wheel, but authorities did not immediately identify the person in the van.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna previously released photos of an Asian man who was believed to be the suspect, but he did not release the man’s name.

The manhunt came after a gunman killed 10 people at a ballroom dance studio late on Saturday amid Lunar New Years celebrations in the predominantly Asian American community of Monterey Park.

He likely tried and failed to target a second dance hall, authorities said.

The van was found in Torrance, another community home to many Asian Americans, about 30 kilometres from that second location.

The shooting sent a wave of fear through Asian American communities in the Los Angeles area and cast a shadow over Lunar New Year festivities around the country. Other cities sent extra officers to watch over the celebrations.

Luna said the shooting at the Star Ballroom Dance Studio in Monterey Park left five women and five men dead and wounded another 10 people. About 30 minutes later, a man with a gun entered the Lai Lai Ballroom in nearby Alhambra.

Authorities believe the two events are connected. They offered no details about a possible motive.

The suspect entered the Alhambra club with a gun, and people wrested the weapon away from him before he fled, Luna said.

Hours earlier, Luna said authorities were looking for a white van after witnesses reported seeing the suspect flee from Alhambra in such a vehicle.

“We believe there is a person inside of that vehicle. We don’t know their condition, but we’re going to handle that in safest manner that we possibly can and try and identify that person. Could it be our suspect? Possibly,” Luna said.

In response to a question, Luna said it was possible the person barricaded in van was dead.

Members of a SWAT team entered the van a short time later and looked through its contents before walking away. It was unclear what they found.

Authorities said on Sunday they knew the suspect’s name but declined to release it. But they did release a photo showing an Asian man wearing glasses and a winter hat.

The massacre was the nation’s fifth mass killing this month. It was also the deadliest attack since May 24, when 21 people were killed in an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

Monterey Park is a city of about 60,000 people on the eastern edge of Los Angeles and is composed mostly of Asian immigrants from China or first-generation Asian Americans. 

The shooting happened downtown where red lanterns decorated the streets for the Lunar New Year festivities. A police car was parked near a large banner that proclaimed “Happy Year of the Rabbit!”

The celebration in Monterey Park is one of California’s largest. Two days of festivities, which have been attended by as many as 100,000 people in past years, were planned. But officials cancelled Sunday’s events following the shooting.

Chester Chong, chairman of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Los Angeles, described Monterey Park as a quiet, peaceful, beautiful city where everybody knew each other and helped each other.

“People were calling me last night, they were scared this was a hate crime,” Chong said.

AP and Reuters