Terrifying moment gunshots break out in downtown Louisville in bank attack that left five dead 

Terrifying footage captured the moment when shots rang out on a busy Louisville street as a mass gunman attacked a downtown bank.

Video taken by a bystander outside the Old National Bank on Monday morning showed heavily armed police officers rushing to clear civilians from the area when a series of deafening gunfire erupted from the bank.

Five people, including the gunman, are dead and at least nine people, including a police officer, are said to be in critical condition. Authorities confirmed the shooter was a former or current employee, but their motive remains unclear. It is also unclear whether the gunman died from officers’ gunfire or from a self-inflicted wound.

As sirens blared and traffic ground to a halt in rush hour, officers could be seen attempting to move civilians out of harm’s way shouting, “Active shooter on the bank!” Get out of your car! Active shooter on the couch!’

The gunfire continued, after which a police officer dressed in body armor was seen pulling a shotgun from the trunk of his car before plunging into battle.

A bank employee told WHAS they saw a man with a “long assault rifle” fire several shots near the conference room.

“He just started firing,” the unnamed employee said. ‘I didn’t see his face. We were in the conference room.

“Whoever sat next to me got shot, their blood is on me,” he added.

Another witness said they heard multiple gunshots and shattering glass coming from the bank on Monday morning.

“I had just dropped my son off at River Road work,” an anonymous witness told WDRB. “I was at the traffic light and the first thing I saw was a man across the intersection and he was at the entrance of a hotel.”

At first, she said, she thought the man was just jogging, but then she noticed he was on the stairs, not the sidewalk.

Then she said she heard gunshots, with video of the scene showing at least three shots fired.

“As I was sitting at that intersection, gunfire erupted, about right above my head,” she said. “I didn’t know if it was on the couch or off the couch, I took off.”

“When I turned around, I saw that one of the windows in the bank had blown out.”

She then said she saw police vehicles moving towards the area.

“They came from everywhere,” she said. “The police came out of their cars with black guns.”

“I just dove into my car and waited there.”

An officer could be seen removing a heavy rifle from his car and then driving towards the gunfire

Authorities are now encouraging the public to stay away from the 300 block of East Main Street in the center of town — just hours from Nashville, where a gunman recently opened fire on a Christian school, killing six people.

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said Monday he has two “close friends” among the five people killed in a shooting outside the Old National Bank in Louisville.

“I have a good friend who didn’t make it,” he said through tears. “And I have another one that didn’t either.”

A third, he said, was one of at least eight people seriously injured when a gunman — believed to be a “disgruntled employee” — opened fire around 8:30 a.m. Monday, when the bank first opened and workers attended a morning conference.

The governor said he was running his campaign for attorney general from the building, where bank employees said they were trying to hide in a vault when gunfire broke out Monday morning.

Louisville metro police said they arrived at the scene within three minutes of opening fire and found him still with bullets when they arrived.