Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has warned Canada “will never be intimidated” following an attack at Ottowa’s parliament which saw two men killed.

Downtown Ottowa remains in lockdown after a gunman stormed Canada’s parliament, killing a soldier at a nearby war memorial.

Police shot dead the gunman in the halls of parliament however they continue to search nearby buildings.

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“For the second time this week their has been a violent and brutal attack on our soil,” Mr Harper said in his first address following the attack.

“In the days to come will learn more about the terrorist and any accomplices he may have had, but this is a reminder that Canada is not immune to the types of terrorist attacks we have seen around the world.”

“Let there be no misunderstanding, we will not be intimated. Canada will never be intimidated.”

Reuters is reporting the prime suspect as Quebec man Michael Zehaf-Bibeau.

Mr Zehaf-Bibeau was allegedly born Michael Joseph Hall but changed his name after converting to Islam.

CTV News have also named the deceased soldier as 24-year-old Canadian forces reservist Cpl. Nathan Frank Cirillo.

He was guarding Canada’s National War Memorial when he was gunned down shortly before 9.30am on Wednesday morning.

The attack comes one day after a man ran down two soldiers, killing one, before being shot by police near Montreal.

Police have not been able to establish any motive for the shooting as yet.

“One shooting victim succumbed to injuries. He was a member of the Canadian forces. Our thoughts and prayers are with his loved ones,” the Ottawa Police and Royal Canadian Mounted Police said.

CTV News reported that three other injured people were transferred to hospital.

Photo from Conservative MP Nina Grewal shows doors of Reading Room barricaded with furniture from inside pic.twitter.com/ueQ2INqiii

— CTV News (@CTVNews) October 22, 2014

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper condemned the “despicable attack” on Canada’s parliament.

Harper was in a parliament meeting with lawmakers when the gunman stormed into the building.

Video footage posted online by The Globe and Mail newspaper showed police ducking for cover as they advanced along a hallway, loud gunfire echoing among parliament’s stone columns.

A member of parliament, Maurice Vellacott, told AFP that House of Commons security had told one of his aides that the suspect had been killed inside parliament.

“I literally had just taken off my jacket to go into caucus. I hear this ‘pop, pop, pop,’ possibly 10 shots, don’t really know,” Liberal Party member John McKay told reporters outside.

“Suddenly the security guards come rushing down the hallways and usher us all out to the back of the parliament buildings,” he said, as lawmakers, staff and reporters scurried from the area.

Witnesses at the scene said they saw a man armed with a rifle running into parliament after shooting a guard at the war memorial.

Passers-by told reporters that a bearded man had gunned down the soldier and hijacked a passing vehicle to take him the short distance to Parliament Hill, on a bluff over the Ottawa River.

One witness, parliamentary aide Marc-Andre Viau, said he saw a man run into a caucus meeting at the parliament, chased by police armed with rifles who yelled “take cover.”

That was followed by “10, 15, maybe 20 shots,” possibly from an automatic weapon, he said.

Photos of the #OttawaShooting scene are unfolding after reports of multiple shootings: http://t.co/2WFcajF7kx pic.twitter.com/OJ00X6o0xw — CNN (@CNN) October 22, 2014

“I’m shaken,” said Viau.

Police raced to seal off the parliament building and the office of Prime Minister Harper, pushing reporters and bystanders further back and blocking roads with squad cars.

In the United States, the White House said President Barack Obama had been briefed on the situation and an official said US and Canadian air defences were on alert.

– with AAP