It’s understood the shooting occurred shortly after 11 a.m, according to local reports.

Metro Nashville Police Department said one woman was shot dead in the parking lot, and six other “innocents” were shot, while another was pistol whipped.

The gunman has also been hospitalized for his injuries.

A spokesman from the Nashville fire department, Joseph Pleasant, confirmed to The Tennessean that the injured have been brought to the Vanderbilt Medical Center.

“Medical personnel are treating 8 wounded churchgoers shot at Burnett’s Chapel Church of Christ,” Nashville Fire Department said in a tweet Sunday. “Shooter among wounded.”

“This is a mass casualty situation,” the fire department said. “All of the wounded have been transported to area hospitals. The majority are older adults.”

The fire department added that “all of the wounded except for one is over the age of 60.”

Among the injured is the church's pastor, who was shot, the WKRN television news channel reported, citing the pastor's son, according to Reuters.

Bill Hunter, a former minister of the church, told Tennessean reporter Natalie Allison, “a fella walked in, sat down in a seat and pulled out a pistol and started shooting."

A woman living next door to the church told WKRN two people came up to her door and said, “Someone is shooting at us at the church.”

Her husband went to the church and saw a victim that had been shot in the back. He saw someone lying in the doorway, and “some other people that were shot.”