A horrifying mass shooting at a supermarket has left seven people dead after a shop employee went on the rampage.
The suspect is understood to have shot himself during the incident at a Walmart Supercentre in Chesapeake, Virginia, US, last night.
As well as the fatalities, four people have been injured and are in hospital, with the attack, in Sam's Circle, starting around 10.12pm local time (3.12am GMT).
Chesapeake Police Chief Mark Solesky told the press this morning the suspected shooter's identity would not be released until after his next of kin had been informed.
He did, however, confirm he was a male employee, but did not know if he was on shift at the time.
Mr Solesky said a pistol was found at the scene and specialist SWAT officers have carried out a search warrant at the suspect's home.
Police will continue to gather evidence inside the store for several days alongside the FBI.
He added that there are seven confirmed fatalities, including the suspect, and four people remain in hospital but their current conditions are unknown.
Prior to the shooting, officials say the suspect was not familiar to law enforcement.
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A witness said the body of a victim was left at the entrance to the shop, with one of those killed reportedly a building caretaker.
Another said shoppers "scattered like cockroaches" as the shots rang out.
It is understood the gunman shot a woman in the head in the car park before open firing in the staff break room and then the store's grocery section.
Footage on social media shows one employee saying the shooter was a store manager.
The suspect has not been identified by police who confirmed there were seven fatalities, including the shooter.
In the video a woman can be heard crying as she says: "I just played dead."
She described how someone begged the shooter, saying "please, please" and he told her: "Get the f*** out of here."
The man behind the camera - who appears to be in a store uniform - said: "It's crazy, y'all. Bro come in this b*** on some...he...it's wild though, bro.
"It was the manager, one of the managers. S*** was savage out here."
He goes on to say: "Bro blew his brains out and everything."
He claimed the shooter entered the staff break room and started firing.
"I came in, got down. The manager came in and started dumping. As soon as I got out of the break room. By the grace of God."
He added: "I hear all this before so I'm thinking it's nothing but then I started hearing them getting closer so I bucked it - I seen everybody run, so I bucked it too. I got up out of there.
"He waited, you can tell he plotted this s***.
"That man a coward for that. You kill people that ain't done nothing to you.
"I walked out of the break room and as soon as I piled out, no more than five minutes...then I start hearing screaming."
A woman nearby described how the gunman walked up to a woman and shot her in the back of the head.
The bodies of victims were seen being brought outside by emergency personnel.
Police say it is currently unclear whether the shooter was a member of staff.
Another witness - who said he had gone to the store to buy tablecloths - said in a TikTok livestream from the scene he was in the gardening section when he heard shots.
"It sounded loud as s*** but there was so many of the same kind of sound I didn't know what the hell else it could have been.
"And then a few people started running past me.
"I got pinned over there for a while by some employees saying don't come out.
"They've already brought a person or two out, they're going in with stretchers.
"I left my whole shopping cart.
"We all scattered like cockroaches when you turn the light on.
"I would have been tackled if I hadn't have ran - everybody was coming right past me."
He said police went in armed with assault rifles.
Chesapeake Police spokesman Leo Kosinski said in a briefing over 35 to 40 minutes officers found multiple dead and injured people in the store and put rescue and tactical teams together to go inside and provide life-saving measures.
Investigators believe that the shooting had stopped when police arrived.
Mr Kosinski did not have a number of dead, but said it was "less than 10, right now".
He did not believe police fired shots, but he could not say whether the gunman was dead as a result of a self-inflicted wound.
Dozens of police cars and medical personnel are at the scene.
A reunification location for survivors and their families has been established at the nearby Chesapeake Conference Center.
Mr Kosinski said: "We go inside, and long story short over the course of the next 40-45 minutes we were able to find multiple fatalities and multiple injured parties."
"With the Chesapeake fire department we were able to put rescue and tactical teams together to provide lifesaving measures rapidly."
He added that the emergency response had begun involving only the local police, but later involved members of the state troopers.
Chesapeake city officials requested that local people avoided the immediate area surrounding the shop in a message posted on Twitter, writing: "Our first responders are well-trained and prepared to respond; please give them space to do so."
Walmart tweeted: "We are shocked at this tragic event at our Chesapeake, Virginia store.
"We're praying for those impacted, the community and our associates. We're working closely with law enforcement, and we are focused on supporting our associates."
Mike Kafka, a spokesman for Sentara Healthcare, said in a text message that five patients from the Walmart are being treated at Norfolk General Hospital. Their conditions were not immediately available.
The Virginia shooting comes three days after a person opened fire at a gay nightclub in Colorado, killing five people and wounding 17.
The alleged attacker, who is nonbinary, was arrested after patrons at the club tackled and beat them. The shootings come in a year when the country was shaken by the deaths of 21 in a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
Tuesday's shooting also brought back memories of another shooting at a Walmart in 2019, when a gunman police say was targeting Mexicans opened fire at a store in El Paso and killed 22 people.
Walmart did not have a security guard on duty that day.
US senator Mark Warner tweeted that he is "sickened by reports of yet another mass shooting, this time at a Walmart in Chesapeake".
State senator Louise Lucas echoed Mr Warner's sentiment tweeting that she was "absolutely heartbroken that America's latest mass shooting took place in a Walmart in my district".
Chesapeake is about seven miles south of Norfolk in the US state.
