A mass shooting has taken place in Thousand Oaks, California

A mass shooting has taken place at Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks, California on one of the venues College nights, attracting students from California Lutheran University and California State University, Channel Islands. Police officers were called at 11:15 pm local time on Wednesday night and found multiple victims at the scene. According to an NBC Los Angeles an officer was down and unresponsive and trail of blood was visible on the street, whilst two eyewitnesses have reported that a cashier and doorman have also been shot. It has since been confirmed that 12 people have been killed and the gunman was shot and killed inside the bar. https://twitter.com/ABC7Jory/status/1060437143091216385 https://twitter.com/CHellerTVNews/status/1060440381630832641

JUST IN: 12 people were killed in the bar shooting in Thousand Oaks, California, the sheriff says. The gunman is also dead. https://t.co/g2YKrSopIu

— CNN (@CNN) November 8, 2018

Authorities now say there are at least 12 victims in the shooting, including the deputy. Eyewitness John Hedge told ABC News that the shooter used smoke grenades and opened fire:

"I was at the front door and I was talking to my stepdad. I just started hearing these big pops. Pop, pop, pop. There was probably three or four, I hit the ground. I look up - the security guard is dead. "Well, I don't want to say he was dead, but he was shot. He was down. The gunman was throwing smoke grenades all over the place. I saw him point to the back of the cash register...and he just kept firing. I ran out the front door."

According to John's stepfather, Tim, who was playing pool in the bar when the attack happened, a young girl working as a cashier was also shot.

"He fired the first shot. I knew it was live. I knew it was real. My son thought it was a joke so I pulled him down and got some cover. I looked up and he was moving to the right. "He shot the front doorman, who was just a young man. Then he shot the cashier, just a young girl. Then he started moving to the right. He wasn't looking at us. "Then he went into the office, where all the cash and stuff is. He didn't say anything at all. He just started shooting," he said.