At least four people have been killed and 18 injured in a mass shooting in Birmingham, Alabama, police said.
“Multiple shooters shot a lot of people” late Saturday in the city’s Five Points South neighborhood, said Birmingham Police Officer Truman Fitzgerald.
Police found the bodies of two men and one woman at the scene, and a third died at the hospital from gunshot wounds, Birmingham police said.
The suspects are believed to have arrived at the scene in a car before getting out and opening fire. No suspects have been arrested.
He added that they believed the shooting “did not happen and caused an unknown incident where many victims were caught in the crossfire”.
Their target was among those killed, Police Chief Scott Thurmond said at a press conference on Sunday.
The other victims – all of whom were standing outside – are so far believed to have been caught in the crossfire.
Four of the injured received life-threatening injuries, according to Mr Fitzgerald.
Authorities are also pushing to find the shooters.
Police said in a statement that they are working with the FBI and other government agencies, are offering a $5,000 reward for information and have set up a website to post photos and videos of the incident.
The Five Points South neighborhood is known for its nightlife. The shooting happened on Magnolia Avenue, Mr. Fitzgerald said.
Witnesses lined up outside a hookah and cigar lounge on Magnolia Avenue at the time he told local news site Al.com that some of the shots sounded like they came from a fully automatic rifle.
Earlier on Sunday, Mr Fitzgerald told the media that a number of people were shot after the incident.
Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin blamed “Glock switches” – devices that can be attached to guns so they fire automatically – for the violence, writing on social media on Sunday that they are “the number one public safety issue in our city and state”.
“Converting an automatic weapon into a fully automatic weapon that ejects all bullets in seconds is not for our home streets,” he wrote, adding that the city does not have the power to ban Glock replacements, only the state.
There have been more than 400 mass shootings across the US so far this year, according to the report Gun violence archive, which defines a mass shooting as an incident where four or more people are injured or killed.
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