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Two killed, four wounded in Kentucky park shooting

A woman is restrained after reacting to knowing a shooting victim on Thanksgiving Day at Shawnee Park in Louisville, Kentucky, on November 24, 2016. (Photo by USA Today)

At least two people have lost their lives and four others sustained injuries in a shooting on Thanksgiving Day in the US state of Kentucky.

The shooting occurred when hundreds of people had gathered for an annual community football tournament at Shawnee Park in the US city of Louisville on Thursday afternoon.

Reports said the two fatalities were African-Americans and that the injured were hospitalized with light wounds.

"At about 1:30 this afternoon, our Louisville second division officers responded to a call of multiple shootings in Shawnee Park. When officers did arrive they located two black males had apparently been shot and had been fatally wounded and were pronounced dead here at the scene,” Louisville Police spokesman Dwight Mitchell said.

“The Louisville metro police homicide unit is investigating. There are four other individuals that we believe also was shot here. All of their injuries appear to be non-life threatening at this point,” he added.

Friends and family react after a deadly shooting on Thanksgiving Day at Shawnee Park in Louisville, Kentucky, on November 24, 2016. (Photo by USA Today)

Police said there were no suspects in custody and they had not established a motive for the attack.

"The increase in homicides in our city should be alarming to everyone — and LMPD [Louisville Metro Police Department] needs the public’s help to solve these crimes," Greg Fischer, the city mayor, responded on Twitter after the shooting.

The law enforcement forces have asked people with information on the shooting to contact police. The incident forced the officials to call off other games at the Shawnee Park football court.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 1.5 million domestic gun deaths were registered in the US between 1968 and 2014.

CDC also reports that firearms kill more than 33,000 people in the US every year, a number that includes accidental discharge, murder and suicides.

Today, it is estimated that there are between 270 million and 300 million guns in the US, about one per person, according to the New York Daily News.


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