VIENNA - Gunmen armed with rifles carried out a coordinated attack in central Vienna on Monday evening, police said, killing two people and injuring more than a dozen as Austrians gathered in bars and restaurants to enjoy the last hours before a new coronavirus lockdown. 

Vienna police said the attackers opened fire in six locations.

As midnight approached, at least one suspect had been killed by law enforcement, but authorities said the situation remained active. Police urged citizens to stay out of public areas, while heavily armed officers swarmed the city, blocking roads to the center and searching vehicles. Medics set up a triage area to treat the wounded.

"We are currently experiencing difficult hours in our republic," Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz tweeted, describing the incident as a "repulsive terrorist attack."

The Austrian military would be deployed to protect sites in the city, he said.

"Whoever attacks one of us attacks all of us," Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said in a late-night news conference. He asked that Viennese stay home Tuesday, including from school, with at least one attacker still on the loose.

He said there were "several dead," though it was unclear whether he was including any attackers. Police had killed a "heavily armed terrorist equipped with an automatic assault rifle," he said.

At least 15 people were injured in the attack, according to a spokesman for Vienna's health association quoted by Austrian media.

One of the perpetrators wore a suicide belt, according to a U.S. security official briefed on the attack who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.

A police officer was among those seriously injured, Harald Sörös, spokesman for the Interior Ministry, told Austria's APA news agency.

The attack in the city's central Innere Stadt - an area known for its nightlife - began at 8 p.m., police said, four hours before bars and restaurants were due to close for a month under new coronavirus restrictions.

Residents out for the evening scrambled to find cover. Jimmy Eroglu, 42, a waiter at a bar-cafe near the edge of the police cordons, said guests "suddenly started storming inside" the building in a panic, saying there was a shooting.

He said he then heard about 15 further shots. "I shut the door and told them to stay inside, because some wanted to go outside to see what's happening," he said. "We were all fearing for our lives."

It was minutes before police were at the scene, he said.

Lisa, a 28-year-old who declined to give her last name for privacy reasons, said she'd been out to dinner with a friend. "It was a lovely evening, and, me and my friend, we just wanted to take advantage of the last night out before lockdown," she said. They'd been planning on meeting others for drinks afterward, but then the gunfire started.

The area is also home to the city's main synagogue. Shots were fired in the "immediate vicinity," Austrian Jewish community leader Oskar Deutsch wrote on Twitter. He said it was too early to tell whether the synagogue was a target, adding that it was closed at the time the shooting began.

As police continued to hunt for the remaining attackers, the city remained eerily quiet.

"Shots fired in the Inner City district - there are persons injured - KEEP AWAY from all public places or public Transport," police posted on Twitter, asking people not to share photos or videos that might interfere with the operation to apprehend the attackers.

Even so, videos of the aftermath circulated online. One showed a man dressed in khaki trousers and a white shirt and black head covering shooting down street. Another showed people ducking for cover as gunshots rang out.

Among those expressing solidarity Monday night was French President Emmanuel Macron, who tweeted: "We, the French, share the shock and sadness of the Austrians after an attack in Vienna. It is a friendly country that is under attack. This is our Europe. Our enemies need to know who they are dealing with. We won't give in to anything."

Three people were killed in a knife attack at a church in the southern French city of Nice on Thursday, an act Macron referred to as "an Islamist terror attack."

- - -

Morris reported from Berlin.