A gunman has killed at least five people and injured 25 others inside a LGBTQI nightspot in the US city of Colorado Springs before being stopped by other clubgoers.
Police identified the suspect as 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich and said he used a long rifle.
He was arrested shortly after the attack began and was being treated for injuries, according to officials.
Several of the injured were in critical condition and were being treated at local hospitals, authorities said.
Club Q, described by many as a safe haven for the local LGBTQI community, called the incident a "hate attack" in a statement on Facebook.
The FBI said it was working with law enforcement partners to determine whether a federal response was warranted.
Multiple firearms were found at the venue, including the rifle, Colorado Springs Police Department Chief Adrian Vasquez told a news conference on Sunday.
In a statement condemning the violence, President Joe Biden said Americans cannot and must not tolerate hate.
"We must drive out the inequities that contribute to violence against LGBTQI people," Biden said.
Colorado Governor Jared Polis, who in 2018 became the first openly gay man in the country to be elected as a governor, called the shooting a "senseless act of evil".
"I feel that same pit in my stomach that so many of you today do, a feeling sadly all too familiar," Polis said in a video appearance during a vigil held at a local church.
Police said the initial phone call about the shooting came in just before midnight, and the suspect was apprehended within minutes thanks to the quick intervention of law enforcement and the bravery of some patrons.
A spokesman for the city of Colorado Springs said authorities were aware of a 2021 bomb threat involving an individual with the same name and birth date as the suspect, but have not officially confirmed he is one and the same.
The Rocky Mountain state has a grim history of mass violence, including the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School and a 2012 rampage inside a movie theatre in a Denver suburb.
The shooting at Club Q was reminiscent of the 2016 Pulse club massacre when a gunman killed 49 people at the gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, before he was fatally shot by police.
At the time, it was the worst mass shooting in recent US history until a gunman killed 60 people at a music festival in Las Vegas in 2017.
The shooting in Colorado Springs unfolded as LGBTQI communities and allies around the world prepared to mark Transgender Day of Remembrance on Sunday, an annual recurrence to honour victims of transphobic violence.
Anxiety within many LGBTQI communities in the US has risen amid a divisive political climate and after a string of threats and violent incidents targeting queer people and events in recent months.
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