At least six people have been killed and 12 injured in a shooting on a busy street in the centre of Sacramento, California’s state capital.
The city's police chief, Kathy Lester, said officers were patrolling the area at around 2am on Sunday when they heard gunfire.
When they arrived at the scene, they found a large crowd gathered on the street and six people dead.
Three men and three women were killed in the shooting, Ms Lester told reporters.
“The scale of violence that just happened in our city is unprecedented during my 27 years here,” Ms Lester said during a news conference.
“We are shocked and heartbroken by this tragedy. But we are also resolved as an agency to find those responsible and to secure justice for the victims and the families.”
Sergeant Zach Eaton, a police department spokesman, said investigators believe at least two shooters were involved.
A roadblock is set a block away from the scene of an apparent mass shooting
A roadblock was set up after the shooting CREDIT: AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli
Videos posted on Twitter showed people running through streets packed with restaurants and bars amid the sound of automatic gunfire.
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The suspects were still at large and authorities said they had found a stolen handgun and were reviewing video footage posted to social media that showed what appeared to be an altercation before the gunfire erupted.
Detectives were trying to determine the sequence of events before the shooting and Sgt Eaton said they "don't know if that fight actually lead to the shooting".
Kelsey Schar, 18, was staying on the fourth floor of Citizen Hotel when she said she heard gunshots.
She walked to the window and "saw a guy running and just shooting," Ms Schar told The Associated Press.
Numerous ambulances were dispatched to the scene and at least 12 people are now in hospital.
At least four of the wounded were hospitalised with life-threatening injuries. Authorities have not identified any of the victims or offered a possible motive.
Ms Lester said a police camera captured part of the shooting and investigators have located hundreds of pieces of evidence.
She described the scene as "really complex and complicated" - so much so that the bodies of the victims remained on the street hours later.
We are asking for the public's help in helping us to identify the suspects in this and provide any information they can to help us solve this," she told reporters, urging residents to avoid the area.
A group of women console each other at the scene of a mass shooting in Sacramento
CREDIT: Bay Area News Group
Councilmember Katie Valenzuela, who represents the area, said she has fielded many phone calls reporting violence in her district during her 15 months in office.
She cried at a news conference as she told reporters that the latest phone call woke her up at 2.30am local time.
“I’m heartbroken and I’m outraged,” she said.
“Our community deserves better than this.”
Family members waited outside the police lines seeking news about missing loved ones.
Among them was Pamela Harris, who said her daughter had called her at 2:15am to say that her 38-year-old son, Sergio, had been shot and killed outside a nightclub.
"She said he was dead. I just collapsed," Ms Harris told Reuters.
Sacramento Police crime scene investigators place evidence markers on 10th street at the scene of a mass shooting in Sacramento
Sacramento Police crime scene investigators place evidence markers on 10th street at the scene of a mass shooting in Sacramento CREDIT: Bay Area News Group
She said she was still waiting on official confirmation from police, adding, "I cannot leave here now until I know what's going on. I'm not going anywhere. It seems like a dream."
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Berry Accius, a community activist, said that he came to the scene shortly after the shooting happened.
"The first thing I saw was like victims. I saw a young girl with a whole bunch of blood in her body, a girl taking off glass from her, a young girl screaming saying, 'They killed my sister.' A mother running up, 'Where's my son, has my son been shot?'" he said.
The shooting - which occurred just two blocks from the state Capitol - was decried by top political officials.
"What we do know at this point is that another mass casualty shooting has occurred, leaving families with lost loved ones, multiple individuals injured and a community in grief,” Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, said.
“The scourge of gun violence continues to be a crisis in our country, and we must resolve to bring an end to this carnage.”
Sunday's violence was the second mass shooting in Sacramento in the last five weeks. On February 28, a father killed his three daughters, a chaperone and himself in a church during a weekly supervised visitation.
David Mora, 39, was armed with a homemade semiautomatic rifle-style weapon, though he was under a restraining order that barred him from possessing a firearm.
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