At least 16 people are believed to be dead, though that number is in flux, and dozens more have been injured after a bowling alley came under fire in Lewiston, Maine, Wednesday evening -- the deadliest shooting of the year and one of the deadliest in recent decades.

Riley Dumont said she heard a loud bang after which her father, a retired cop, corralled them into a corner and put protection in front of them including "tables and a big bench that the kids were hiding behind."

“I was laying on top of my daughter. My mother was laying on top of me,” said Dumont. "It felt like it lasted a lifetime," she added. "I just remember people sobbing and crying."

Another witness at the bowling alley, whose name is Brandon, but whose last name was not made available, described hearing a "loud pop."

"Thought it was a balloon," Brandon said. "I had my back turned to the door. As soon as I turned and saw that it was not a balloon, he was holding a weapon. I just bucked it down the lane and I slid basically into where the pins are and climbed up to the machine and was on top of the machines for about 10 minutes until the cops got there."

Meghan Hutchinson, another shooting witness, said, "We were very scared and we didn't know, like, we didn't know what to do, what to expect from this. You know, nothing like this has ever happened here before. We barricaded in there and another parent was in the room with me. She had a phone and she called 911."

Zoe Levesque, 10, was grazed by a bullet.

“I never thought I'd grow up and get a bullet in my leg," said Levesque. "Like, why do people do this? I was more worried about, like, am I going to live and going to make it out of here? Like, what's going to happen? Are the cops going to come?"

"We are expanding the shelter in place advisory and school closings to include the town of Bowdoin. Please stay inside your homes while more than 100 investigators, both local and federal work to locate Robert Card who is a person of interest in the Lewiston shootings," Main State Police said in a post on social media.

ABC News has learned that Maine State Police plan on briefing the media at 10:30 a.m. ET on the mass shooting in Lewiston.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, on Wednesday night is already the deadliest shooting of the year.

At least 20 people are believed to be dead from the shooting with dozens more injured.

The suspect has been on the run for hours.

This is the 565th mass shooting of 2023 and the 31st mass murder, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

Gov. Janet Mills officially confirmed the Maine mass shooting suspect Robert Card is dead. Authorities found his body on Friday, she said.