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SAN BERNARDINO. — Authorities yesterday worked to determine why a man and a woman opened fire at a holiday party of his co-workers in Southern California, killing 14 people and wounding 17 in what appeared to be a planned attack.

Syed Rizwan Farook (28) and Tashfeen Malik (27), who had a 6-month-old daughter together, were killed in a shoot-out with police after Wednesday’s mass shooting at the Inland Regional Center in the city of San Bernardino, a social services agency where Farook worked as an inspector.

Officials from San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan to President Barack Obama said the attack may have been an act of terrorism, but that a motive had not yet been determined.

“It is possible that this was terrorist-related. But we don’t know,” Obama told reporters at the White House.

“It is also possible that this was workplace-related.”

“Rest assured that we will get to the bottom of this,” said Obama, who said the FBI was taking over the investigation of the attack. Obama ordered flags to be flown at half-mast in memory of the shooting victims.

Farook, a US citizen, was born in Illinois, the son of Pakistani immigrants, according to Hussam Ayloush, who heads the Los Angeles area chapter of the Muslim advocacy group Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Malik, his wife, was born in Pakistan and had been living in Saudi Arabia before marrying Farook, Ayloush said. Both were Muslims, Ayloush said.

Officials in Washington familiar with the investigation said so far there was no hard evidence of a direct connection between the shooters and any foreign militant group.

The sources said a raid on a town-house believed used by the couple was searched for electronic devices that could show if they had shown interest in Jihadist websites or social media.

The two assault rifles and two handguns recovered from the shoot-out were legally purchased in the United States, said Meredith Davis, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Two of them were purchased by someone “associated with this investigation,” while the buyer of the other two was not linked to the investigation, she said.

The long guns were .223-caliber and their ammunition can go through protective vests and walls, Davis said.

In addition to further debate on gun control laws, the latest mass slaying in the United States comes with much of the world on edge following attacks in Paris by Islamic State militants that killed 130 people last month.

In the aftermath of the California shootings, 10 people remained hospitalised at two local hospitals yesterday, two in critical but stable condition, three in fair condition and five in stable condition, the hospitals said.

The Los Angeles Times reported that co-workers described Farook as quiet and polite.

Ayloush appealed to the public not to jump to conclusions about the suspects’ motives.

He said he was concerned about a backlash against the broader Muslim community in view of the rise of Islamic State and some opposition among politicians and the public in the United States over US plans to accept Syrian war refugees.

“We’re living in a very difficult time,” he told CNN. “There’s a lot of Islamophobia out there, a lot of anti-Muslim sentiment, fueled by pundits here and there trying to blame a whole community for the acts of a few.”

Burguan said Wednesday’s shooting broke out after Farook, a county public health employee, attended the party at the Inland Regional Center and, at some point, stormed out. He and Malik later returned, both dressed in assault-style clothing, and opened fire, Burguan said. They also placed several bombs at the scene, which police detonated, authorities said.

Burguan said the manner in which the couple was equipped indicated there was “some degree of planning” behind the attack.

About five hours after the assault, police spotted Farook and Malik in a vehicle about two miles (3,2 km) away. The couple died in a shootout with police.

The San Bernardino rampage was the deadliest US shooting incident since the December 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut in which 27 people, including the gunman, were killed.

There have been more than 350 shootings this year in which four or more people were wounded or killed in the United States, according to the crowd-sourced website shootingtracker.com, which keeps a running tally of US gun violence. – Reuters.