Parliament Hill came under attack today after a man with a rifle shot a soldier standing guard at the National War Memorial in downtown Ottawa, before seizing a car and driving to the doors of Parliament Hill's Centre Block nearby.

MPs and other witnesses reported several shots fired inside Parliament, and a gunman has been confirmed dead inside the building, shot by the House of Commons sergeant-at-arms, according to MPs' eyewitness accounts.

Ottawa police confirmed early Wednesday afternoon that the soldier died from his injuries.

It was not immediately known if there are further injuries, but paramedics were seen carrying a stretcher into the Chateau Laurier Hotel, just east of Parliament Hill. There were reports of shots fired there as well.