Ex staff doctor injured many when he opened fire in a New York hospital.

BBC news is reporting that a gunman has opened fire inside a hospital in the Bronx borough of New York, injuring several people. The man behind the attack was said to have been dressed as a doctor and armed with a rifle and is now dead.

Police identified the gunman as 35-year-old Henry Bello, a former doctor at the hospital.

Messages on social media spoke of doctors and nurses barricading themselves inside the building in the Mount Hope district.

The victims were reportedly shot on the 16th and 17th floors.

The New York Police Department posted a tweet urging members of the public to avoid the area around the hospital at 1650 Grand Concourse.

The New York Times quoted a fire department official as saying that three doctors had been shot. Their condition is not known.

The Times reported police as saying that the gunman was a tall, thin man wearing a blue shirt and white laboratory coat.

Emergency medical workers cannot yet enter the building as it has not yet been secured by police. The fire official told the Times one injured doctor was being treated by people inside the hospital using a fire hose as a tourniquet.