Dallas: A man in the US opened fire on weekend shoppers at a Texas mall on Saturday killing eight people before he was killed, police said.
Some of the victims of the mass shooting are as young as five year olds, as per a report by NBC news.
Another shooting within a fortnight confirm the fears that public places are increasingly becoming unsafe in the US.
Allen Premium Outlets, a sprawling shopping complex sitting 40 km north of Dallas, was in chaos after an unidentified man went on shooting rampage, news agency AFP reported.
When the shooting started at around 3.30 pm a police officer, according to the report, was in the mall looking for a second shooter.
On hearing the gunshots, the officer engaged the suspect and neutralized him, said Brian Harvey, chief of the Allen police department.
Police have not yet released the identity of the shooter.
Three of those wounded, getting care in area hospitals, are in critical surgery while four are stable, the officer said.
‘We owe a debt of gratitude to first responders that ran toward the gunfire and acted swiftly to neutralize the threat,’ said Keith Self, a Republican congressman was quoted as saying.
CNN aired a video showing the shooter in the parking lot of the mall, before beginning his rampage.
When the police searched for a second shooter on the loose, causing a chaos, which led the shoppers to rush into the parking lots.
It was the officer who later neutralized the shooter identified him and engaged him.
A spokesperson for Medical City Healthcare said that the hospital received eight patients following the shooting.
Among developed countries, the US has recorded the highest incidents of gun deaths often from mass shooting with 49,000 in 2021, up from 45,000 the year before.