Montgomery shooting: Two dead after mass shooting in popular tourist area - police confirm 'mass casualty incident'

Two people have been killed and 12 others injured after a shootout in a busy tourist area of a major US city. Police have declared a "mass casualty incident" after the gun horror in downtown Montgomery, Alabama.

A huge emergency response was scrambled to Bibb Street in the southern US city, close to where the Rosa Parks Museum is located, after shots were fired around at around 11.30pm local time on Saturday, October 4. Police said 14 people suffered gun shot wounds in the incident, which "two parties" shoot at each other in a crowd of people in the busy downtown street.

Two people, including a woman, died and three others were left fighting for their lives in hospital. Nine others received non-life-threatening injuries. A huge police cordon remained in place on Sunday morning. Police urge the public to avoid the are while they work to investigate the scene and detectives appealed for information.

Montgomery Police Chief Jim Graboys told reporters at the scene: "At approximately 11.30pm, units responded to a mass shooting event at the corner of Bibb and Commerce Street. We have confirmed there are 14 victims. Two are deceased. Three are life threatening and nine are non-life threatening at present.

"And as I compose myself in relation to this senseless act of violence, I am going to state specifically that we will use every resource, we will stay up all night, we will do whatever we need to do and use every resource to charge and hold the people responsible who were involved in this offence.

"We are using every technological resource we have, we are using every detective we have and every bit of evidence that we are collecting now to sort out what has been a tragic and chaotic event that took place earlier tonight.

"My heart is weeping for the families and I am incredibly angry because this was not a typical mass shooting that people read about. This was two parties that were involved that were shooting at each other in a crowd. I know enough to say that right now.

"While I am limited in some of the information that I can release, I am releasing that because the people who did what they did, who are responsible for opening fire on each other like that, did not care about the people around them when they did it."

The incident happened on a busy night in the city's tourist district, shortly after a football game between Tuskegee University and Morehouse College. The city erected a Ferris wheel and other downtown attractions in conjunction with the game.