ORLANDO - A SACKED worker shouted 'they left me to rot' on Friday after he attacked his former office in a shooting spree in Orlando, Florida that left one person dead and five wounded.

In the second mass shooting in the United States in two days, the alleged shooter, 40-year-old Jason Rodriguez, was later and arrested and dragged away in handcuffs from his mother's house.

His arrest hours after unleashing a hail of bullets on former colleagues came as Americans reeled from a rampage 24 hours earlier at a Texas military base that left 13 people dead and 30 wounded.

Panicked Florida workers barricaded themselves into their offices at the Gateway Center in central Orlando as Swat teams combed through the 16-storey building, trying to find the shooter.

Some three hours later he was eventually tracked down at his mother's house. It was not immediately clear if she or someone else had telephoned the authorities.

Given his outburst to journalists about being left to rot, Rodriguez is assumed to have been exacting revenge for his dismissal by architectural engineering firm Reynolds, Smith and Hills more than two years ago. -- AFP