Five police officers were shot in Houston early Monday evening after an encounter with a suspect, the Houston Police Department said.

It was not immediately clear what their conditions were, but they were taken to nearby hospitals, the police said. At least one suspect was dead at the scene, the police said.

Aerial footage broadcast on television showed numerous police vehicles and ambulances gathered in a working-class, residential neighborhood about seven miles southeast of downtown Houston.

Dozens of police officers scoured the area on foot. Nearly three hours after the shooting, the police said it was still an “active scene.” A SWAT team searched for more possible suspects.

The lights of police cruisers flashed in the darkness near Harding Street, a small road where the shooting occurred that is lined mostly by single-story homes with small yards. Helicopters circled overhead and residents stood outside their homes, talking in groups of three or four.

Veronica Bonilla, 45, was watching TV after work when she heard half a dozen gunshots ring out from the house two doors down. Within seconds, she said, the neighborhood sounded like a war zone.

“At first I thought it was someone working on their house, like with a nail gun, so I thought ‘O.K.,’” she said. “Then all of a sudden I heard a lot of yelling and a lot of gunfire. I threw myself on the floor and I called 911 and I said, ‘There is a shootout here!’”

Ms. Bonilla drew the curtains, locked the door and called her husband, who couldn’t get home from work because the police locked down the neighborhood.

Soon friends and relatives began calling: Local news stations were broadcasting from the scene of the shootout, and Ms. Bonilla’s house was on TV.

“Honey, let me tell you, I am locked in the house and I cannot leave,” she said. “It is so scary. It is crazy”

Sofia Franco, 53, a longtime resident, passed out bottles of water. She did not hear any gunshots, but said the shooting left her and her neighbors rattled.

“I’ve never seen this before,” she said of the neighborhood. “There was a lot of drugs before, maybe 10 years ago. But I’ve never seen this. It’s sad. It’s five police officers.”

Residents who live in the area told television reporters that they could hear police officers speaking through bullhorns. Ms. Bonilla said she saw two SWAT officers standing on the roof of her neighbor’s house.

Chief Art Acevedo of the Houston police said in a tweet around 6:30 p.m. that the “shooting scene is still fluid.”

“Please pray for our officers and their families,” Chief Acevedo said.

The police were encouraging people to avoid the area.

Manny Fernandez contributed reporting.

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