A bank employee armed with a rifle shot dead five colleagues and wounded nine others at his workplace in Louisville, U.S. state of Kentucky, on Monday while livestreaming the attack on social media.

The incident took place around 8:30 a.m. on Monday at the Old National Bank on the East Main Street, the Louisville Metro Police Department tweeted, asking people to stay out of the area.

Police arrived as shots were still being fired inside the Old National Bank and killed the shooter in an exchange of gunfire, Louisville Metro Police Department Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel said. 

Mayor Craig Greenberg called the attack "an evil act of targeted violence."

In Louisville, the chief identified the shooter as 25-year-old Connor Sturgeon, who she said was livestreaming during the attack.

There is a heavy police presence at the scene, with damaged glass and discarded medical equipment at one location, local media reported.

Two police officers were among the nine wounded. A 26-year-old recent police academy graduate was struck in the head and remained in critical condition after brain surgery on Monday, police said. All nine victims were treated at a hospital and two other victims were also in critical condition.

It is not the first time that a gun rampage has been livestreamed by an attacker. The gunman who killed 10 people in a racially motivated shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, in May 2022 had livestreamed his attack, as had the attacker who killed 51 people in May 2019 at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Mass shootings have become commonplace in the U.S., which has experienced 146 so far in 2023, the most at this point in the year since 2016. Those statistics use the definition of four or more shot or killed, not including the shooter, according to the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive.

As of April 10, over 11,500 people have died from gun violence in the U.S. – an average of about 115 deaths each day, it said.

The latest Kentucky shooting, the 15th mass killing in the country this year, comes just two weeks after a former student killed three children and three adults at a Christian elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee.

U.S. President Joe Biden responded to news of the shooting by reiterating his wish that Congress pass legislation requiring safe storage of firearms, background checks for all gun sales and elimination of gun manufacturers' immunity from liability.

"How many more Americans must die before Republicans in Congress will act to protect our communities?" Biden, a Democrat, said in a statement.

(With input from agencies)