Young girl among 5 killed in rare mass shooting in England; gunman dead

Police in Plymouth, England said Friday a gunman killed five people, including a young girl, during a shooting rampage before taking his own life. British police identified the suspected gunman as Jake Davison, BBC News reported.

Devon and Cornwall Police Chief Constable Shaun Sawyer said Davison, a 22-year-old who had a firearms license, killed a young girl and a relative of the girl, Reuters reported.

“There is no motive, as we know, at present time, again, that will be subject to inquiry,” Sawyer said.

Earlier, police said in a statement on Twitter that several other people were receiving treatment following the shooting in the Keyham district of the city. The area has been cordoned off.

“Hearing that one of the dead is a small child is utterly heartbreaking,” Plymouth Member of Parliament Luke Pollard tweeted.

Emergency services, including air ambulance and senior paramedics, responded to the incident at around 6:10 p.m. local time.

A witness named Sharron told BBC News she had heard shouting followed by several gunshots.

“This was when the shooter kicked in the door of a house and randomly started shooting,” she said.

Officers found two women and two men dead, police said. Another man, believed to be the offender, was also dead at the scene. All are believed to have died from gunshot wounds.

Johnny Mercer, one of Plymouth’s lawmakers, said in a tweet the incident is “not terror related, and neither is the suspect.”

Devon and Cornwall Police also said it was not terrorism related.

The incident marks the worst mass shooting in the U.K. in more than a decade, BBC News reported. The last mass shooting in Britain happened in 2010 when taxi driver Derrick Bird killed 12 people in Cumbria.