Eight people were killed and seven injured in a mass shooting at a shopping mall in a suburb of Dallas, Texas, USA, and eyewitness accounts followed.

Six people were killed at the scene in a mass shooting that occurred at a premium outlet store in Allen, a small town outside Dallas, at about 3:36 p.m. local time yesterday (7th).

Nine injured people were taken to nearby hospitals, two of whom died soon after, and seven are currently undergoing surgery and other treatment.

Three of them are still in critical condition, police said.

The suspect was shot dead after a police officer who was East Sea the mall immediately rushed to the scene and engaged in a skirmish. Including the gunman, the death toll is nine.

Photos obtained by CNN showed a man believed to be the gunman lying on the ground with an AR-15 firearm next to him.

He was wearing black body armor and appeared to have several spare magazines in the equipment he wrapped around his chest, CNN reported.

Kimberly Blakey, who managed to get out of the parking lot in front of the mall where the shooting took place, said: "The shooting kept happening. It was constant."

Footage circulating on social media shows the gunman getting out of a car parked in front of the mall and immediately starting to shoot at people on the sidewalk, with a total of 30 to 40 gunshots being heard until the filmmaker drove away and left the scene.

Another survivor, Kingsley Eze, said she was walking inside the mall at the time of the incident when people suddenly ran from behind her and a man was clutching her neck and bleeding from it.

Tiffany Gibson, a restaurant worker at the outlet, complained that she heard gunshots and hid in the hallway behind the restaurant with customers, saying, "It was such a traumatic experience that I was already suffering from anxiety and seizures."

According to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit that tracks U.S. shootings, this is the 199th mass shooting in the U.S. this year.

If there are more than four casualties, minus the gunman, it is defined as a mass shooting.

Yesterday alone, there were three mass shootings in the United States, including one in Texas, where one person was killed and five injured in a shooting in Chico, California, and one was killed and three injured in a shooting in Columbus, Ohio.

The U.S. media noted that Texas in particular has seen a trend in recent years of mass shootings that have resulted in high casualties as it loosens gun controls.

Last May, 19 young students and two teachers were killed in a mass shooting at Robe Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

The Texas legislature has a conservative-leaning Republican majority, and Gov. Gregory Abbott is a hardline gun advocate in the Republican Party.

Specifically, Texas enacted legislation beginning in September 2021 that would allow residents who legally own firearms to carry firearms in public without having to be issued a separate license or trained.

U.S. President Joe Biden has repeatedly called on Congress to tighten gun control, including banning the sale of assault rifles, while directing federal agencies to raise early flights to mourn the victims of the Texas incident.

"These attacks are too shocking to get used to," Biden said, "and I repeatedly ask Congress to pass and send me legislation to ban assault rifles and high-capacity magazines, require universal background checks, require safe storage locations, and end immunity for gun manufacturers."

(Photo=Reuters, Yonhap News)