A gunman has opened fire at a cinema in the US state of Louisiana, killing two people and injuring several others before shooting himself, officials say, the BBC reports.

Police said the attacker was a 58-year-old white male armed with a handgun but did not release any further details.

Witnesses said the man opened fire about 20 minutes into a screening of a film at the Grand Theatre in Lafayette.

Police chief Jim Craft said officers responded to reports of a shooting at about 19:30 local time.

Mr Craft said seven other people were taken to a local hospital with injuries ranging from critical to non-life threatening.

The gunman’s identity is known to police, Mr Craft added, but is not being released at this time.

The police chief said that the gunman did have a criminal history but that it was “pretty old”.