A gunman has killed two people at a Louisiana cinema before shooting himself.
Police confirmed the 58-year-old "lone white male" had killed himself after the incident at the Grande Theater, in Lafayette.
Officers said they knew the identity of the shooter but were not releasing it yet.
Seven people were wounded with injuries ranging from non-life-threatening to critical.
Theatregoers had been 20 minutes into a screening of the film 'Trainwreck' when the shooting began, just after 7pm local time.
Witness Tanya Clark said she had been buying popcorn when a group of people ran out of the cinema telling everyone to run.
She added: "I thought it was just teenagers playing a little prank, you know, and then I see a whole other bigger group coming out screaming the same thing".
"And then we saw a lady with blood all over her leg. I just grabbed my child. I mean, we all ran."
There were about 100 people inside the cinema at the time of the shooting, police said.
Bomb squad officers have identified a car belonging to the suspect and will carry out a controlled explosion after suspicious items were spotted inside the vehicle.
Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal said: "There's no good reason why this type of evil should intrude on the lives of people who are just out for entertainment."
Speaking from the scene, he described the shooting as "an awful night for Louisiana".
Comedian Amy Schumer, who stars in 'Trainwreck' tweeted: "My heart is broken and all my thoughts and prayers are with everyone in Louisiana."
The shooting came just after an interview where US President Barack Obama described the nation's inability to fix the gun control issue as "distressing".
He told the BBC he is "frustrated" that the country does not have "common sense gun safety laws, even in the face of repeated mass killings".
He added that fewer than 100 Americans had been killed by terrorism since September 11th 2001, but tens of thousands had been killed by gun violence.
The Lafayette shooting came three years after James Holmes opened fire during a showing of a Batman film in Aurora, Colorado.
He was convicted last week of the first-degree murder of all 12 victims and attempted murder of the 70 people injured and could face the death penalty.
Melanie Eversley, a reporter with USA Today, spoke to Newstalk Breakfast.
