Shooting at Mohammed cartoon drawing contest in Texas

Two gunmen have been shot dead after opening fire at an art exhibition in Texas where caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed were being displayed.

Police said the suspects were killed outside the Curtis Culwell Centre in Garland, north of Dallas, which was hosting an art show of drawings of the Prophet.

The event was billed as a "free speech event" by its sponsor, the American Freedom Defence Initiative, which has been criticised by opponents for being anti-Islam.

Geert Wilders, the far-right populist Dutch politician who had been invited as a guest speaker, had just finished giving a talk to the 150 or so people gathered when the shots were fired at around 7pm local time.

The two heavily armed suspects drove up to the front of the building in a car as the event was coming to an end, and began shooting at a security officer, the city said in a message posted online.

Johnny Roby, from Oklahoma, was attending the conference said he was outside the building when he heard around about 20 shots that appeared to be coming from the direction of a car passing by. He then heard a pause followeed by two more shots.

The security officer, identified as 57-year-old Bruce Joiner, was injured after being shot in the leg during the firefight. He was taken to hospital for treatment and released after several hours.

"I am shocked. I just spoke for half an hour about the cartoons, Islam and freedom of speech and I had just left the premises," Mr Wilders said in an email to AFP, adding that the shooting was an attack on "liberties".

Police said they had not immediately determined the identity of the two gunmen or whether they were linked to critics of the event

Just before the shooting, a Twitter account using the name "Sharia is Light" posted about an impending attack on Texas, tweeting: “May Allah accept us as mujahideen [holy warriors]” alongside the hashtag #Texasattack.

The contest, which was offering a top prize of $10,000 (£6,000), had received about 350 entries depicting Muhammad.

Such drawings are deemed insulting to many followers of Islam and have sparked violence around the world. According to mainstream Islamic tradition, any physical depiction of the Prophet Muhammad - even a respectful one - is considered blasphemous.

In January, 12 people were killed by gunmen in an attack against the Paris office of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, which had lampooned Islam and other religions and used depictions of Muhammad.

Pamela Geller, president of the American Freedom Defence Initiative (AFDI), said that she planned the Sunday event to make a stand for free speech in response to the outcries and violence over drawings of Muhammad.

_{Artist Bosh Fawstin (left) is presented with a check for 12,500 by Dutch politician Geert Wilders (centre) and Pamela Geller (right) during a ceremony at the Curtis Culwell Center just before the shootings occurred}

Ms Geller, who has declared herself a supporter of the English Defence League and has been banned from entering the UK, said the shooting showed how "needed our event really was" and called it a "war on free speech."

"What are we going to do? Are we going to surrender to these monsters?" she wrote on her website. "The war is here," she said, adding that she was already planning several more events.

AFDI is known for mounting a campaign against the building of an Islamic centre blocks from the World Trade Centre site and for buying advertising space in cities across the US criticising Islam.

The event was allowed to go ahead despite criticism from residents and local Muslims, who expressed concern it was a risk to public safety.

The group spent $10,000 on 40 additional security officers.