Five, including a police officer, killed in North Carolina shooting

A North Carolina mayor announced that five people, including a police officer, were killed in a shooting in a residential area.

Raleigh Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin told reporters that multiple people were shot on the Neuse River Greenway around 5pm, and that the police department told her around 8pm that the suspect had been "contained" at a residence in the area.

Numerous police vehicles and multiple ambulances had swarmed the Hedingham neighbourhood starting in the late afternoon, and officers remained in place for hours during an apparent manhunt. Details of what happened remained scant by early evening.

"State and local officers are on the ground and working to stop the shooter and keep people safe," Gov. Roy Cooper had tweeted shortly before 7 pm.

Earlier, WakeMed Hospital spokesperson Deb Laughery said said at least four people connected to the shooting were being treated at the hospital, but no other information was immediately available.

Police closed off several streets in the area, and numerous law enforcement vehicles could be seen parked both in the street and in the driveways of two-story homes. The neighbourhood borders the Neuse River Greenway Trail, and is about 9 miles (14 kilometers) from Raleigh's downtown.

The Raleigh Police Department said it was "on the scene of an active shooting" in a statement via Twitter, and advised residents in multiple neighborhoods to stay indoors.

Brooke Medina was driving home at around 5:15 pm when she saw about two dozen police cars, both marked and unmarked, race toward her neighborhood as she got off the highway. She then saw ambulances speeding the other direction, toward the closest hospital.

She and her husband, who was working from home with their four children, started reaching out to neighbors and realized there was a shelter-in-place order.

The family closed all of their window blinds, locked the doors and congregated in an upstairs hallway together, said Medina, who works as a communications vice president at a think tank. Thee family listened to the police scanner and watched local news before going back downstairs once the danger seemed to have moved further away from their home.

"We're just going to hunker down for the rest of the night and be very vigilant. Keep all of our lights on, doors locked," she said.

She described Hedingham as a sprawling, dense, tree-lined neighborhood that's full of single-family homes, duplexes and townhomes that are more moderately priced compared to other parts of the Raleigh area.

Medina said she often takes her kids on bike rides along the greenway during the day, but typically brings pepper spray along just in case.

"There's a lot of places one could disappear," she said.