Six people were killed in Kyiv on Saturday after a gunman opened fire and took hostages at a supermarket in the Ukrainian capital before being killed during an arrest attempt, officials said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that at least 14 people were hospitalised with wounds and trauma after the shooting and hostage-taking, which took place in a residential district in the city's south.

"He was holding hostages and, unfortunately, killed one of them. He killed four people right on the street. Another woman died in the hospital from severe injuries," Zelensky said on social media, adding that four hostages from the supermarket "have been rescued".

"The attacker has been eliminated," he said, offering condolences to the victims' families.

The assailant's motive was not immediately known.

Zelensky urged "a swift investigation" into the shooting and said that all the circumstances of the incident were being established.

Ukrainian Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said the standoff between the assailant and police negotiators at the supermarket lasted around 40 minutes.

"We tried to persuade him. Realising that there was likely an injured person inside, we offered to bring in tourniquets to stop the bleeding. But he didn't respond," Klymenko told reporters at the scene. "That's why the order was given to eliminate him."

The man is also suspected of having set fire to his apartment near the supermarket, according to authorities.

Neighbour Ganna Kulyk said that he spoke very little and had been living in that apartment "for 10 years".

The prosecutor's office confirmed it had opened a terrorism investigation into the incident and that the suspect was a man born in Moscow in 1968.

Ukraine has seen sporadic shooting incidents but has a relatively low crime rate.

Last year, a man shot dead two people in a Kyiv suburb in a dispute over the sale of a firearm. (AFP)



Edited by Tony Sabine