At least five people were killed and one suspect was found dead after Britain’s worst mass shooting in more than a decade took place in Plymouth, south-west England, police said.
Police said officers and ambulance personnel were called in to respond to a “serious firearms incident” on Biddick Drive in the Keyham area of the coastal city of Plymouth around 6:10 pm. local.
Two women and two men were found dead at the scene, according to police. Another woman was treated for gunshot wounds at the scene and died shortly thereafter in hospital.
Another man, believed to be the offender, was also found dead. All are believed to have died from gunshot wounds.
Police have emphasized that this was not a terrorism-related incident. They added that the area has been cordoned off and that the situation is believed to be contained.
Luke Pollard, MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, tweeted that more people are being treated at the hospital for injuries and that at least one of those killed was a minor.
Mass shootings are extremely rare in the UK. A Scottish school massacre in 1996 led the country’s government to toughen gun laws and ban private gun ownership, and Thursday’s incident is the deadliest of its kind since 2010, when a shooting in Cumbria in the northern England, claimed 12 lives.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said “his thoughts are with the friends and family of those who lost their lives and with all those affected by the tragic incident in Plymouth last night”.
“So unspeakably horrible. My condolences and thoughts go out to the families,” Pollard added on Twitter. “I am completely devastated that one of the people killed in the #keyham shooting was a child under the age of ten.”
Lawmaker Johnny Mercer added that the incident was “serious and tragic” and described Thursday as a “truly devastating day.”
The police appealed to people not to “speculate or share images of the scene on social media or anywhere else”.