A suspect is in custody after four people were killed and four others injured in a shooting in the US city of Philadelphia, local media reports.

A Philadelphia Police Department representative confirmed to Reuters by email there were “multiple gunshot victims” but said no further details were immediately available.

Police officers said they apprehended a male suspect wearing a ballistic vest just before 8.40pm on Monday (local time), roughly 10 minutes after shots rang out, and recovered a rifle and handgun in a nearby alleyway, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Both the Inquirer and Philadelphia television WPVI reported two of the people shot were juveniles, but it was not clear whether they were among the dead.

Details of the July 4-eve gun violence were sketchy but the shooting was reported to have happened in the Kingsessing section of south-west Philadelphia.

WPVI video footage from the scene showed several police squad cars parked near an intersection, lights flashing in the darkness, with portions of the street cordoned off with yellow and red crime-scene tape.

The shooting came a day after two people were shot dead and 28 others injured, about half of them children, in a hail of gunfire at an outdoor neighbourhood block party in Baltimore, Maryland.

Police said they were still seeking multiple suspects in that shooting.

– AAP