NEW YORK: A 20-year-old man dressed in camouflage went on a shooting rampage in a mall crowded with holiday shoppers, killing eight persons and wounding five others, before turning the rifle on himself in the US' Nebraska state.

Hundreds of panic-stricken shoppers ran to bathrooms, hid under display racks and crouched behind garbage cans as Robert Hawkins, who left a suicide note that said "now, I will be famous", sprayed bullets from his SKS assault rifle while perched on a third floor balcony."

All I could think was what if he comes through the door, what if he comes through right now," said Kevin Keline, 29, who hid in a storage room with her four-year-old daughter and four other women, including an expectant mother, as the gun shots rang out in a retail store inside the Omaha mall.The deceased included five men and three women. Police said the Wednesday afternoon attack appeared to be premeditated but without provocation and that the gunman was acting alone.