Dramatic footage taken from inside the building shows police teams clearing the building room by room following reports of an active shooter at Mercy Hospital and Medical Center. Two people, including the suspected gunman, are reportedly dead after gunfire erupted at the hospital at around 9.30pm GMT (3pm local time). Chicago fire officials said one police officer and two women were also shot.
One woman was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, and the other was taken to University of Chicago Hospital. Both were in extremely critical conditions.
The circumstances surrounding the attack are still not clear, with some bystanders saying they witnessed a man shooting people at random.
CNN reported that the suspected gunman has been identified as a 32-year-old male, according to a Chicago police source.
Police said initial reports suggest shots were fired both inside and outside the hospital.
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Chicago Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi urged people to avoid the area around the hospital.
He said in a tweet: “Reports of multiple victims from incident at 26th and Michigan. Please avoid area.”
The hospital was partially evacuated, and employees and patients were escorted to waiting buses.
Hospital staff are waiting for police to give them the all clear before they can return to work.
A pharmacy employee who witnessed the shooting told ABC: “You know you’re safe but you’re like ‘Oh my goodness, is this real?’
“But you’re worried because you can hear that man shooting in the lobby.
“You’re worried because you know there’s patients in that lobby, you’re worried for your co-workers you know are in that lobby.”
James Gray, another witness, added: “It was chaos, mass chaos.”
Mr Gray noted he saw a man and a woman walking towards the parking lot before “the gentleman turned around and shot her three times in the chest”.
Nigary Thomspon, who works at the hospital’s family clinic, said she heard eight or nine shots and then locked the doors and hid in the back of the clinic with other employees and patients.
Thompson said: “I am scared as hell.
“I have never been so scared, I hear of shootings going on every day at people’s workplaces, but not where I work at.
“This was very too close to me.
“That could have been us back there and if any bullets had pierced the wall we all would have been hurt.”
Additional reproting by Harvey Gavin