LIVE: Dallas police launch manhunt for suspect who shot firefighter

A Dallas fire department medic was in critical but stable condition on Monday after being shot while responding to an emergency call in the city's southeast section, police and city officials said.

Dallas city government reported on Twitter that police were searching for the assailant, who they believe is still in the vicinity.

The victim originally had been described as a firefighter; officials later said he is a fire department paramedic.

The shooting happened shortly before noon when the Dallas Fire Rescue Department responded to a call that someone had been shot and the assailant opened fire on the paramedic who was treating the victim, the city said.

The initial shooting victim was also hospitalized and is in stable condition, local media reported.

Dallas was the scene last July of a mass shooting of police officers in which five were killed and seven wounded. The assailant, a former U.S. Army reservist who had posted an angry rant against white people on a Facebook page, was killed in a police-initiated explosion after being cornered in a parking garage.

(Reporting by Peter Szekely in New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Leslie Adler)

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(Note: This article has been updated.)