A terrified witness came face-to-face with a rampaging gunman who killed five people before taking his own life in Plymouth last night.
The bloodbath began at around 6pm when a man named locally as Jake Davison, whose identity has not yet been officially confirmed, kicked in the door of his family home in the Keyham area of the city, witnesses said.
Neighbours then heard gunshots ring out before the shooter raced outside, along a road and into a park.
One shocked witness said he peppered innocent pedestrians with bullets in the street as he went.
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The 23-year-old continued unloading the firearm in a park, hitting two people including a young girl, before turning the gun on himself, according to unconfirmed reports.
Distressing footage which was later circulated on social media, despite pleas from authorities not to share images and videos, appeared to show a bloody body lying on the street.
The upsetting scene tallies with one witness's report of coming across two dead people on the floor of the cul-de-sac.
Robert Pinkerton said he turned a corner and "bumped into a bloke with a shotgun" in the street but managed to "swerve" out of the way when he saw the firearm.
The 54-year-old then spotted another man helping an injured woman who was lying in the doorway of a hairdressers.
The killings have sent shockwaves through Plymouth.
Labour MP for the city Luke Pollard said he was 'utterly shocked and devastated' by the shootings in his constituency.
"We don't expect this to happen here," he said.
"It is not Plymouth. The community is utterly devastated by what has happened and shocked to the core."
Once the chaos of the initial few hours following the shooting had subsided, a picture of how the terrifying incident unfolded slowly began to emerge as shocked witnesses started to tell their stories.
Eyewitness Sharron lives behind the home where the killings began.
"Firstly, there was shouting, followed by gunshots - three possibly four to begin with," she told the BBC.
"This was when the shooter kicked in the door of a house and randomly started shooting.
"He ran from the house shooting as he ran and proceeded to shoot at a few people in the linear park up from the drive."
Sharon told The Times that the gunman opened fire on a girl who looked about five-years-old while dressed in black and grey and armed with what appeared to be a semi-automatic weapon.
One person leaped in their car and motored out of the road in a bid to get away from the killer, they said in a social media post.
'I've just had to emergency drive out of my house,"they wrote.
"There's (someone) on the rampage in my cul de sac with a real gun and he's already shot two people.
"They are laying on the ground. One is dead, blood everywhere. I'm shaking like a leaf."
As the gunshots rang out through the neighbourhood, many people living close by witnessed the chaos while sheltering in their homes.
Many took to social media to report the terrifying incident and to urge their neighbours to stay inside.
One witness told MailOnline that they heard screaming and what sounded like a firework going off while making sandwiches in their friend's kitchen, prompting them to walk outside.
"We then saw the body of the gunman and called 999," they said.
And resident, John, said he heard air ambulances landing on a field outside before seeing armed police running up the street.
"I went out to check that people were all right and to ask if there was anything we could do, and the Police Community Support Officers told everyone to get back indoors," John recalled.
"Then we saw the ambulances take people away."
A Facebook page for Davison, the suspected shooter, said while he lived in Plymouth he was originally from Phoenix in the US.
He had previously shared a pro-Donald Trump post as well as a number of space exploration images and another of a statue holding a rifle.
It also states that he began work at defence and engineering giant Babcock International in April this year, a firm which runs the dockyards at Devonport.
In April, the company announced it would make about 1,000 redundancies and would slim down its management structure.
A number of people commenting on Davison's social media profile, who claim to have known him, spoke of mental health concerns as well as a recent family battle with cancer.
While none of the slain people - three females and three males, including the gunman - have been formally identified, one of the dead is said to have been a young child, according to Mr Pollard.
This morning Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted: "My 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.
"I thank the emergency services for their response."
