Ian David Long, 28, identified as California bar gunman by law enforcement officials

Multiple fatalities have been confirmed at a shooting at a dance bar and grill in Thousand Oaks in Southern California.

Ventura County Sheriff Geoff Dean said there are 13 victims, which includes the gunman and a police officer, reports Euronews.

Sergeant Ron Helus was a veteran officer of 29 years service and leaves behind a wife a son.

“It’s a horrific scene in there. There’s blood everywhere,” Dean said in a press conference.

Ventura County Sheriff Spokesman Garo Kuredjian detailed earlier that casualties number eleven, including the police officer. Other reports suggest that injured parties have taken themselves to hospital and therefore may not have been counted by authorities, which may mean the tally of injured people will rise.

The bar has been identified as the Borderline Bar and Grill on Rolling Oaks Drive. Wednesday night’s event was a ‘College Country Night’.

Jeremy Childs, a local reported with the Ventura County star, took this video of the aftermath.

Erica Sigman was in the bar when the shooting began.

“Shots rang out. We were hiding under the stools and there was like a little smoke bomb. My friend actually saw it, because I was under the stools with her. She saw the smoke bomb like start to go off, then you just heard everyone say, ‘Run!”.”

Sarah Rose-Desowen who was also at the scene said:

“I’m pretty sure I saw him (shooter) and like, I’ll never get that picture out of my head but we dropped and we heard the gunshots, a lot of gunshots, a lot of gunshots.”

Catherine Cheresh, who lives close to the bar, told Euronews what she heard.

“I heard the shots and thought it was gunfire but then thought “No. not here” and assumed it was a BB gun or something. Then I heard screaming. Sounded like teenagers and at first I thought it was laughing or yelling,” she said.

“Then I heard sobbing. Someone yelled “Oh god. He just come in and shot up the place.” One of my neighbours was down there and we asked if he knew what was going on and he said ‘Yeah someone shot up the bar.’ It’s a linedancing place. It’s been in Thousand Oaks forever.”

“Then there were sirens and more shots,” Cheresh continued. “Someone yelled for everyone to head into the apartment complexes. He said get off the road, it isn’t safe get inside the complex and off the street. Helicopters now. There was more yelling of ‘Oh god oh god.’ And more sirens. And that’s all I can hear. Is sirens and helicopters. It’s… I’m really scared.”

Thousand Oaks is the second largest city in Ventura County, Southern California, part of Greater Los Angeles and around 64 kilometres from Downtown LA. The population is around 130,000.

An affluent city, average house prices are more than double the US average and the median household income is more than $120,000. A number of technology companies are based in the area and Thousand Oaks has been dubbed “the next Silicon Valley”.

The city is a Republican stronghold in Ventura County, and is home to California Lutheran University, a private, liberal arts college affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Thousand Oaks is ranked the fourth safest city of its size in the country, according to FBI crime reporting.