Six people have been confirmed dead after a 58-year-old man of Russian background went berserk in the open street and shot random passers-by at close range. The authorities are calling the incident terrorism.

Photo from the surveillance camera in the supermarket, where the gunman took hostages and was ultimately killed by the police.

– Fourteen people are in hospital with injuries and trauma following the shooting and the subsequent hostage-taking, said Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyj on Saturday, in his daily televised address to the nation.

The perpetrator was shot and killed by a police special unit after barricading himself inside a supermarket and refusing to negotiate.

Zelenskyj initially reported five dead and ten wounded. He has called for a swift investigation and that all verified information be shared with the public.

He said in the broadcast that the 58-year-old, who was born in Moscow but is said to have served in the Ukrainian armed forces during two periods, has a criminal background.

According to the President, he set fire to the flat where he was living before going out into the street and beginning to shoot.

In the video below, the 58-year-old can be seen running around rather sparsely populated streets in a quiet residential area south of Kyiv and either threatening or shooting passing pedestrians at close range.

According to Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko, he had a licence to carry a registered firearm. There was also an approved medical certificate in connection with the weapons application.

On the basis of photographs taken inside the shop after the hostage drama was over, it appears that the man used a folding Kel-Tec SUB-2000, a semi-automatic carbine chambered for 9 mm pistol ammunition.

The gunman was killed as the police attempted to apprehend him inside the supermarket, Klymenko stated. By then he had taken hostages and begun shooting at the police, after 40 minutes of futile attempts at negotiation.

One of the hostages was killed.

– We tried to persuade him. When we realised that there was probably an injured person in there, we offered to get tourniquets inside to stop the bleeding. But he did not respond, Klymenko said at a press conference, as reported by NTB.

Ukraine’s security service reports on Telegram that it is investigating the case as an act of terrorism.