Washington DC shooting leaves one dead, four injured as suspect dies after standoff

One person has been killed and four others injured after a gunman opened fire in Washington DC.

The shooting began on Thursday morning local time inside a gym in an apartment building in the Logan Circle neighbourhood, which is about a mile (1.6km) north of the White House.

Police said the suspect, a white male, was "contained" after barricading himself in one of the apartments. They later confirmed he had died.

Of those injured, one is in a critical condition and the others have non-life-threatening injuries.

While the suspect was barricaded, "he did fire through the door at officers at least on two occasions", Jefferey Carroll, the interim chief of the Metropolitan Police Department, said at a news conference.

Negotiators had been on the phone with the suspect when they heard a gunshot and he stopped communicating with them, according to Carroll.

Officers forced their way into the apartment and saw the suspect had what appeared to be a "self-inflicted gunshot wound", he said.

Carroll added that police "believe there was a fire that was set", which has been contained.

Authorities are still working to understand the exact timeline, suspect's motivation, and other details of the incident.

"We believe there was some sort of a conflict with the apartment building, but we don't have much more than that," Carroll said.

Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser called it a "senseless act of gun violence" and said the White House had been briefed.

A BBC producer who lives in the building where the shooting happened, Jonathan Csapo, said a fire alarm went off. Then, as he came out of a fire escape, he heard gunshots very close by.

"I could see the smoke, I could see the flash. We just all started running. That was our first instinct," he said.

"We immediately ran and took cover behind a barricade, a little brick structure just near the building."

Csapo said he was then taken back inside, to a safe room, by a building manager.

"And then everybody started screaming," he said.

Michael Carney told the Washington Sun he was on a treadmill at the Vida Fitness gym when the shooting started.

He says he heard "one pop" which he assumed was an exercise ball bursting before seeing a victim on the floor who had been shot.

"Everyone was kind of just hiding behind planters and stuff," he said, adding a fire alarm was pulled.

Once outside of the gym, Carney says he heard five or 10 shots that seemed to be coming from a nearby alley.

Another witness told the Washington Sun that she heard "an enormous, loud thing" in the fitness centre and more shots outside the gym after being evacuated.

"I thought something had crashed or fallen," she said. "I didn't know it was a gunshot until later."