NEW YORK - Two firefighters were shot dead and two others injured Monday morning while responding to a fire in a small town in New York state, the United States, police said.

The firefighters were ambushed by one or more shooters as they arrived at the scene to put off the blaze in Webster, a small town in Rochester city in upstate New York, and two of the firefighters are deceased, two others were wounded, said Webster Police Chief Gerald Pickering.

A house burns after a man set fire and then shot and killed a responding police officer and a firefighter while injuring two other firefighters in Webster, New York, Dec 24, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

According to the police, the first Webster police officer who arrived on the spot exchanged gunfire with a shooter, who was found dead at the scene and was killed by an apparent gunshot wound.

A security cordon was put up and residents were evacuated with the protection of armed personnel not longer after the gunshot.

The incident in Webster took place just ten days after the shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 children and six adults were killed by a shooter, who killed his mother at home before his campus slaughter.

The Newtown shooting has caused intense debate on gun laws across the United States, which has witnessed an explosion of gun violence over the last three decades.