4 killed, 4 injured in US mass shooting

WASHINGTON - Four people were killed and four others injured Monday night in a mass shooting in Philadelphia, the United States, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

A suspect was in custody, the U.S. daily reported, cited the police.

The report said police heard gunfire just before 8:30 p.m. local time (0030 GMT on Tuesday) and received multiple reports of a male armed with a rifle shooting in the Kingsessing section of Southwest Philadelphia.

At least two juveniles were among those shot, but their conditions were not immediately known, it said, adding that the injured have been transported to nearby hospitals.

Roughly 10 minutes after the shots rang out, police officers reported they had apprehended the suspect wearing a ballistic vest and had recovered a rifle and a handgun in a nearby alleyway, the report said.

"Horrified by the reports of a shooting in Southwest Philadelphia," tweeted Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney. "My heart is with the loved ones and families of everyone involved, and I send my prayers to the victims."

The mayor expressed his thanks to police officers "for their brave response and successful apprehension of a suspect." This violence must stop, he noted.

At least 341 mass shootings have happened across the United States so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit group which defines a mass shooting as one in which at least four people are shot, excluding the shooter.