McMiller said she and her co-workers didn’t hear any shots but they heard authorities yelling and saw police, FBI, state troopers and SWAT swarming to the scene.

“Some of them were still in civilian clothes and they were pulling their vests on as they ran towards the building,” she said.

Four of the dead were killed at the scene; a fifth person, who was shot in the upper body and arm, died at the University of Maryland Medical Center, Schuh said.

In an interview with the Baltimore Sun, Davis, the reporter, said the newsroom “was like a war zone”.

“I’m a police reporter. I write about this stuff — not necessarily to this extent, but shootings and death — all the time,” he said. “But as much as I’m going to try to articulate how traumatizing it is to be hiding under your desk, you don’t know until you’re there and you feel helpless.”

‘He believed profoundly in the craft’

Police identified the victims as Wendi Winters, who worked in special publications; Rebecca Smith, a sales assistant; Rob Hiaasen, an assistant editor; editorial page editor Gerald Fischman; and John McNamara, a staff writer.

In a Facebook post, author Carl Hiaasen said he was “devastated and heartsick” to confirm the death of his brother, affectionately known as “Big Rob” because he towered over people.

Hiaasen said his brother, who was an editor and a columnist at the paper, was “one of the most gentle and funny people I’ve ever known.”

“He spent his whole gifted career as a journalist, and he believed profoundly in the craft and mission of serving the public’s right to know the news,” Hiaasen wrote.