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

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

“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, of which two are related to gunshot wounds and one related to injuries sustained after being struck by a vehicle.”

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

Murphy said there is “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 yesterday, no one was in custody.

“This is a very complex situation,” said Murphy.

Chattanooga’s latest eruption of violence comes 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, including tragedies at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, have left dozens of people dead in recent weeks. – AFP, June 6, 2022.