Five dead after shooting attack at downtown bank in downtown Louisville, Kentucky

Shortly after confirming the attack, police said the shooter was dead, without giving further details. It was unclear whether the death toll of five included the shooter, who police described as either a current or former employee of the bank.

Police were still trying to determine whether the shooter shot himself or was shot by police, Paul Humphrey, a Louisville Metro Police Department deputy chief, told reporters.

Police said they responded within minutes to reports of an attacker at about 8:30 a.m. (1230 GMT) at a branch of the Old National Bank, near Slugger Field baseball stadium in the city's downtown.

At least two police officers were among the eight wounded; two of the wounded, including one of the officers, were in critical condition at a hospital.

"We will come together as a community to work to prevent these horrific acts of gun violence from continuing here and around the state," Craig Greenberg, mayor of the city of 625,000, told reporters at a briefing.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, on the verge of tears, said he knew victims in the attack.

"I have a very close friend that didn't make it today," he said at the briefing, "and one who's at the hospital that I hope is going to make it through."

Mass shootings have become recurrent in the United States. So far this year, the nation has experienced 146 mass shootings - using the definition of four or more shot or killed, not including the shooter - according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit group.

In one of the most recent high-profile incidents, three 9-year-old students and three staff members were killed by a former student at a school in Nashville, Tennessee, on March 27.