A gunman wielding a rifle brazenly walked into a New York skyscraper housing the headquarters of the NFL and Blackstone, shooting dead four including a police officer before turning the gun on himself.
Several people were also injured in the attack, which left the building in lockdown and caused chaos on the streets as the work day drew to a close on Monday.
Images shared on social media appear to show the suspect entering the building with an assault rifle in broad daylight.
The shooting began at about 6.30pm local time (11.30pm UK) before police rushed to the scene.
The gunman was “neutralised”, officials said. He is understood to have died from a self-inflicted injury.
He was identified in US media as a 27-year-old man from Las Vegas.
New York Mayor Eric Adams said in a video message posted on X there were “multiple injuries” in the shooting. The severity of their injuries is not yet known.
The New York Post, citing police sources, reported that a gunman wearing a bullet-resistant vest and carrying a silenced AR-style rifle.
The newspaper said the shooter had barricaded himself inside the office tower, possibly on the 32nd floor of the 44-storey Midtown building.
Officials said he died on the 33rd floor, which houses the offices of the Rudin Management real estate firm.
A short time later, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Disch said on X: “At this time, the scene has been contained and the lone shooter has been neutralised.”
CNN said police shared a photo of the suspect walking into the building carrying a rifle. Preliminary checks of the suspect’s background did not show a significant criminal history, the report added, citing officials.
In the image, the gunman can be seen wearing a sport coat and buttoned shirt.
Office worker Shad Sakib told AFP that he was packing his things to leave work when a public address announcement warned him and his colleagues to shelter in place.
“Everyone was confused with like, ‘Wait, what’s going on?’ And then someone finally realised that it’s online, that someone walked in with a machine gun,” said the witness.
“He walked right into a building right next door. We saw the photo of him walking through the same area that I walked through to get lunch here.
“You would think it won’t happen to you, and then it does.”
Another witness told AFP: “I was in the building. He went floor by floor.”
The skyscraper at 345 Park Avenue, between 51st and 52nd street, is home to a number of other financial firms, including KPMG and Deutsche Bank.
A large police presence converged on the area around the tower, according to Reuters journalists near the scene.
The FBI said agents from its New York field office were also responding to provide support at the scene.
New York’s senators, Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, who are both Democrats, posted on social media that they were praying for those affected by the shooting.
“We must do more to stop gun violence in America,” Mr Schumer wrote.
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