The Daily Morning Voice Online Desk: Nine people have been killed in a mass shooting in a city in southern California of Los Angeles, local law enforcement officials have said, report agencies. The incident happened in Monterey Park, about 13 kilometres east of downtown Los Angeles late on Saturday (Bangladesh time Sunday). “Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Homicide detectives are responding to assist Monterey Park Police Department with a shooting death investigation. There are nine deceased,” a statement said.

The suspect is male, the statement added, but there was no information on whether he had been captured or was still at large. Monterey Park is home to around 61,000 people, the majority of them Asian or Asian American. Reports said the shooting came at a dance venue an hour after Chinese Lunar New Year celebration. Local resident Wong Wei told the Los Angeles Times his friend had been at the dance club, and had been in the bathroom when the shooting erupted.

When she emerged, she saw a gunman and three bodies – two women and one person who he said was the boss of the club. “Our hearts go out to those who lost loved ones tonight in our neighboring city, Monterey Park, where a mass shooting just occurred,” Los Angeles City Controller Kenneth Mejia said in a tweet. Police stand guard at the scene along Garvey Avenue in Monterey Park, California The LA Times reported that the owner of a seafood barbecue restaurant near the scene said three people had run into his restaurant and told him to lock the door.

The three said there was a man with a semiautomatic gun who had multiple rounds of ammunition on him, and would reload every time he ran out, the restaurant owner told the paper. 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 journalists at the scene overnight said there was a large police presence, with areas taped off and helicopters overhead. Gun violence is a huge problem in the United States, which saw 647 mass shootings last year, according to the Gun Violence Archive website, defined as an incident with four or more people shot or killed, not including the shooter.