A man reportedly armed with a firearm, a small axe and capsicum spray has been killed after he attacked movie goers inside a cinema in the Tennessee state capital of Nashville, USA.

An “active shooter situation” in Antioch, a rural town near Nashville, ended with “suspect dead”, the local police department said in an online statement.

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The suspect reportedly sprayed audience members inside Carmike Hickory 8 theatre and potentially inflicted a single hatchet wound.

He then exchange gunfire with heavily armed SWAT police before being killed.

Three movie-goers were reportedly treated for capsicum spray exposure and one for a possible axe wound, but there were no other reports of gun wounds.

The incident occurred during a screening of action film Mad Max. The alleged gunman has been tentatively described as a 51-year-old male but not named.

Another shooter killed two and injured nine inside a screening of the romantic comedy film Trainwreck on 23 July in the US city of Lafayette, Louisiana.