Several people were shot in Friday shooting in Washington

At least four people, including a 12-year-old girl, were shot when a gunman unleashed a flurry of bullets in the US capital Friday.

The shooting led to lockdowns at several schools and left a community on edge before the suspect was found dead hours later, local US media said.

The suspected gunman was found dead Friday night inside an apartment at the scene as Metropolitan Police Department officers conducted door-to-door searches of buildings in the area.

The gunfire erupted shortly before 3:30 p.m. near the corner of Connecticut Avenue and Van Ness St. in the Van Ness neighborhood of Washington, just as parents were picking up their children from the Edmund Burke School, a private college preparatory school.

The echoing bursts of rapid gunfire rocked the normally quiet neighborhood that’s home to several schools and colleges and dozens of embassies. It sent frantic parents running from the scene and put Burke and other nearby schools on immediate lockdown.