Chaotic shooting incident in Tennessee leaves three dead

Police tape is pictured at a trash can on the street, at a crime scene after a deadly mass shooting on South Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., 5 June 2022.
Reuters

At least three people were killed and more than a dozen injured early Sunday in a Tennessee city after gunfire erupted and fleeing vehicles struck bystanders, police said.

The bloody incident came barely two hours after a separate mass shooting in Philadelphia left three dead and 11 wounded.

"At this time we can confirm 14 gunshot victims and three victims that were struck by vehicles that were attempting to flee the scene," Chattanooga Police Chief Celeste Murphy told reporters.

"Three fatalities have been confirmed, two of which are related to gunshot wounds and one of which is related to injuries sustained after being struck by a vehicle."

She said the wounded included at least one juvenile, and that several victims remained in critical condition.

Murphy said there was "definitely more than one shooter" involved in the incident near Mary's Bar and Grill in a downtown section of Chattanooga, a city of 180,000.

As of midday Sunday, no one was in custody. "This is a very complex situation," Murphy said. Chattanooga's latest eruption of violence came just a week after six people were wounded in another shooting in the city.

The United States is plagued with gun violence, and mass shootings in recent weeks including tragedies at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas and a grocery store in Buffalo, New York have left dozens of people dead.