Police were at the scene of a shooting in Southern California that has claimed a number of lives, including deaths, U.S. media reported Sunday, citing law enforcement.
There were scant details and no immediate confirmation from police in Monterey Park, about eight miles (13 kilometers) east of downtown Los Angeles.
The area is home to a large number of ethnic Asians.
The Los Angeles Times, citing a police source, said there were “multiple” fatalities.
A law enforcement source told the newspaper there were more than a dozen fatalities.
City News Service, a reputable local news outlet, quoted authorities as saying that there were deaths and injuries in the crash. He did not give any toll.
The agency said it happened about an hour after the end of the Lunar New Year festival.
“It’s an isolated incident,” a deputy sheriff named M. McClendon told the City News Service.
The LA Times reported that Seung Won Choi, owner of a seafood barbecue restaurant near the scene, said three people had rushed into his restaurant and told him to lock the door.
The three said there was a man with a semi-automatic pistol that had multiple rounds of ammunition on him and would reload whenever it ran out, Choi told the newspaper.
The Times reported that tens of thousands of people had gathered earlier in the day for the two-day Lunar New Year festival, which is one of the largest in Southern California.
AFP reporters at the scene overnight said there was a large police presence, with cordoned off areas and helicopters overhead.
