A shooting has occurred inside the plant of the nation’s largest food manufacturer.

Police in the US have advised that two people were shot dead at a Kraft plant in Philadelphia on Thursday.

Another person was critically hurt when a woman who had been suspended from her job opened fire with a handgun after having been escorted out of the building.

The woman had returned to the building in a car 10 minutes after being escorted out.

She drove through a security barrier before re-entering the building on foot, where she first fired a shot at an employee who had followed her in.

Officers freed seven people who had been pinned down inside a room by the female shooter before she shot her three victims.

The shooter was eventually apprehended after shooting at police a number of times.

Workers were then rushed out of the plant, which used to be known in the local area as the Nabisco factory.

100 people were inside the plant when the shooting began.

Many of them ran outside when they heard the first shots.