England officials reported that a shooting in the southwestern parts of the region on Thursday evening resulted in the death of at least five people and police also discovered the lifeless body of the suspected gunman.
Devon & Cornwall Police said officers responded to a "serious firearms incident in Biddick Drive, in the Keyham area of Plymouth" shortly after 6:00 p.m. In a statement, police said they discovered two female and two male victims at the scene. They also said the body of a third male, who is believed to have been the gunman, was found in the area with gunshot wounds.
Mass Shooting
Medical experts treated another female at the scene of the incident who received gunshot wounds and was later transported to the hospital where she was pronounced dead. Authorities said all of the next of kin of the victims have been notified of the incident and that no one else was being investigated regarding the shooting, NBC News reported.
The identity of the suspect and the victims have not been revealed to the public and police have not yet found a motive for the crime. The area where the shooting occurred, Plymouth, is a city on the southwest coast of England and is home to more than 200,000 people.
Authorities have closed off the area of the shooting and said they believe the situation to be contained. Police also urged the public to not "speculate or share pictures of the scene on social media or anywhere else."
Johnny Mercer, a Member of Parliament (MP) for Plymouth Moor View, uploaded a Twitter post where he said that the shooting was not a terrorist attack. He said that authorities believed the suspect was not on the run before he was discovered among the dead bodies, CNN reported.
Luke Pollard, a local lawmaker from the opposition Labour Party, uploaded a Twitter post that revealed that one of the victims was a child who was under 10 years old. The British Home Secretary called the incident "shocking."
Lowest Homicide Rate
Worldwide, the United Kingdom has one of the lowest recorded gun homicide rates and officials have said that mass shootings in the region were rare. The recent shooting incident has been the first in records since 11 years ago.
One resident, 57-year-old Sharron Turner, lived behind the scene of the shooting and said that a gunman had "kicked in" the front door of a semi-detached house. She said that the suspect then fired at a mother and her daughter. Turner said she saw the man in black and grey, who was reportedly armed with a semi-automatic weapon.
Authorities are still investigating the incident to discover any information about the killer and the motive for the crime. Police said the disruption to the road network in the Keyham area will be implemented throughout the night to contain the scene of the crime.
In a previous statement, the South Western Ambulance Service said it responded to the shooting with a significant number of resources, including Hazardous Area Response Teams (HART), multiple ambulances, doctors, and senior paramedics, Reuters reported.
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