Eight people from the same family, including a five-year-old boy, a 10-month-old girl, and a woman who was eight months pregnant, have been killed in a shooting in Erie, Pennsylvania, police said, in one of the worst mass shootings in the city’s history.

The shooter was also dead, and there was no threat to the public, the city said.

Emergency responders were called to a residential home and conducted a tactical response, releasing flash-bang devices.

A statement released by the city confirmed there was no standoff. All the deaths occurred before officers arrived at the scene.

Neighbours heard gunshots ring out on Friday evening (US time).

Jennifer Lott, who lives on the block where the shooting took place, said she was at home when she heard gunshots. She ran to the street, and when she didn’t see anything, she returned inside to grab her phone.

Racing back outside, she saw a woman lying in the street.

“I got closer, and I noticed she had a gunshot wound to her head and she wasn’t moving, and everybody kept telling me to back up; the police were coming,” she told The New York Times on Saturday.

Erie Police Chief Rick Lorah told a local news station that he had been a police officer for 28 years. He said he had never “seen the loss of life and the devastation that we just witnessed.”

“This is one of the most difficult and heartbreaking scenes our officers and investigators have ever encountered,” Lorah said. “The loss of life is devastating, and the circumstances we are working through are deeply disturbing.”

Governor Josh Shapiro said Saturday he offered his administration’s “full support” to Erie Mayor Daria Devlin.

“I’ve spoken with Mayor Devlin and offered my Administration’s full support following the tragic mass shooting in Erie last night — killing nine of our fellow Pennsylvanians,” Shapiro wrote in a Saturday morning post on X.

Erie is the fifth most populous city in Pennsylvania and is located on the shores of Lake Erie.

Devlin and the Erie Police are due to hold a press conference on Sunday morning AEDT.

AP, The New York Times

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