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Two heavily armed suspects - one male and one female - have been killed by police after a mass shooting in California left 14 people dead, the BBC reported.

Police confirmed that the suspects were armed with assault rifles and handguns and wearing "assault-style clothing".

Hours earlier, the gunmen opened fire during a holiday party at a San Bernardino community centre.
Up to 17 people were wounded and the city virtually shut down as hundreds of officers searched for the gunmen.

The incident marks the deadliest mass shooting in the US since 26 people were killed at a school in Newton, Connecticut in 2012.

The FBI is not ruling out the possibility of terrorism but the situation is still being investigated.

Authorities are also evaluating a possible explosive device at the Inland Regional Center, where the shooting took place. San Bernardino is a city of about 200,000 people 60 miles (100 km) east of Los Angeles.

At around 11:00 local time (19:00 GMT) on Wednesday, at least one shooter opened fire at the health care centre. Hundreds of people were evacuated as police officers swept through the massive complex and into the residential area.

Others locked themselves in rooms waiting for police to arrive.

"People shot. In the office waiting for cops. Pray for us. I am locked in an office," Terry Petit's daughter texted him from inside the centre.

The Inland Regional Center specialises in helping adults with disabilities like autism and mental health problems, but the shooting appeared to be unrelated to the patients.

The attack took place in a conference area where the San Bernardino County Department of Public Health was holding a social event, said Maybeth Field, the centre's president.

They came prepared to do what they did, as if they were on a mission," San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said.

Police launched a manhunt saying they were looking for up to three suspects who had fled in a black SUV.

Hours later police riddled a black SUV with gunfire in a shootout which happened about two miles from the community centre. One police officer was injured.

A third person near the gun battle was detained, but police said it was unclear if that person had anything to do with the shooting.

The mass shooting comes just days after three people were killed at a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic

.US President Barack Obama said in response to the shooting: "One thing we do know is that we have a pattern of mass shootings in this country that has no parallel anywhere in the world.

"There are some steps that we could take, not to eliminate all incidents, but to make sure they happen less frequently."