Nine people were killed at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina Wednesday evening when an unknown gunman opened fire on a prayer group, leaving a scene of carnage before he vanished into the night.
Eight of them died at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, police said, and another passed away at a local hospital, all of them victims of what local officials are calling a "hate crime.
The only reason someone would walk into a church and shoot people that were praying is out of hate," said Charleston Mayor Joe Riley, who described the scene as "the most heartbreaking ... I have ever witnessed in my life."
"I do believe this is a hate crime," added Gregory Mullen, Charleston's chief of police.
Police responded to reports of a shooting at the church, one of the largest and oldest black congregations south of Baltimore, just after 9 p.m. local time, where they found a number of the victims inside.
Its pastor is Rev. Clementa Pinckney, a member of the South Carolina state Senate and a well-regarded local community leader. Pinckney is said to have been in the church at the time of the shooting, and there are reports he is among the shooting's victims.
Mullen said there were survivors in the shooting and he declined to identify any of the victims.
The suspect, described as a white male, approximately 21 years of age, with sandy blond hair and "extremely dangerous," ran from the scene of the shooting and is currently at large.
The police chief said there will be a reward offered on Thursday for information that leads to the suspect's capture, with police "going to do everything in our power to find this individual."
The town's mayor said local and state law enforcement as well as the FBI are working together to capture the suspect.
As the news spread throughout the local community, ministers and congregants of the church gathered in a prayer circle, holding hands and asking why, of all places, it was a church where people could be shot down. "If we're not safe in the church, God you tell us where we are safe!" one yelled. "How can I take my child to church if a place of worship isn't safe?" asked another.
South Carolina governor Nikki Haley issued a statement on Facebook saying she and her family were praying for the victims and families touched by the tragedy. "While we do not yet know all of the details, we do know that we'll never understand what motivates anyone to enter one of our places of worship and take the life of another," she said.
Other local officials, as well as presidential candidates Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton, expressed their condolences for the victims and their friends and family on social media.
Bush, in South Carolina at the time of the shooting, canceled his Thursday event in Charleston. Clinton had left the state just hours before.
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