Six die in Kyiv supermarket shooting; police kill suspect

 A gunman who killed at least six people in Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, before taking hostages and barricading himself inside a supermarket on Saturday has been shot and killed by police, Ukrainian officials said.

Ukraine's special tactical police units stormed the store after attempts to contact the gunman with a negotiator failed, the head of Ukraine’s Interior Ministry, Ihor Klymenko, said in a statement on social media.

The attacker was killed while resisting arrest, he said.

Speaking to reporters at the scene, Klymenko said that the gunman had killed four bystanders while on the street, before entering the supermarket and killing a fifth person.

Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that a sixth victim, a young woman, died from her injuries in the hospital.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later confirmed that four hostages had been rescued and that at least 14 people had been wounded.

Special team police officers attend outside a supermarket following a shooting in Kyiv on Saturday. AFP

Ukraine's ​SBU ⁠security ‌service said on ‌Telegram ‌on ⁠Saturday that the mass ​shooting and ‌hostage taking in ⁠a city district ​was ‌being ‌investigated ‌as ‌a "terrorist act."

A Press reporter on the scene saw the bodies of the victims in the street covered by emergency blankets before they were taken away.

Klymenko said the shooter was born in 1968 but gave no further details as to his identity. Police negotiators spoke with the attacker for roughly 40 minutes before storming the building, he said.

Before the gunman was shot, a female police negotiator, wearing body armour and standing behind an armoured vehicle, used a loudspeaker to call out to the assailant, urging him: "the people are not to blame for this. Please, let them go and we will talk with you.”

"We tried to persuade him, knowing that there was likely a wounded person inside. We even offered to bring in tourniquets to stop the bleeding, but he did not respond," Klymenko said. "Consequently, the order was given to neutralise him.”

A body lies on the ground at the site of a shooting incident in Kyiv. Reuters

Zelensky later wrote on social media that the shooter was born in Russia and had lived in Ukraine's eastern city of Donetsk for a "long time." He also said that the attacker had set fire to his apartment before going out into the street armed.

Klymenko said the man was carrying a carbine. The short-barrel assault rifle was legally registered, he added.

Last December, the assailant "approached the licensing authorities to have the weapon test-fired as the permit was expiring. He provided a medical certificate. He had also submitted an application to renew his permit for the weapon. That is all we can say for now," Klymenko said.

He added that the investigation will determine which medical institution issued the certificate.

The shooting took place in Kyiv's Holosiivskyi district, the mayor said. Televised footage of the scene showed police taking cover in the shopping mall that housed the supermarket while shots were fired. Bystanders were escorted away from the scene.

Agencies