Gunmen opened fire in a popular entertainment district in Birmingham, Alabama, on Saturday night, killing four people and wounding at least 18 others, in what appeared to be a targeted attack, police said. Authorities said they were still looking for the shooters.

Police responded to calls about a shooting in the Five Points South area just after 11 p.m., Truman Fitzgerald, a spokesperson for the Birmingham Police Department, said at a news conference. Two men and one woman were found dead at the scene, he said, while another man died at a nearby hospital.

Police believe the person whom the gunmen were targeting was among those killed, Scott Thurmond, the city’s police chief, said at a news conference Sunday morning. He said the shooters had approached the scene in a vehicle, got out, opened fire and then fled in the vehicle. The police said they believed the shooters had used machine gun conversion devices, which alter semi-automatic weapons so a single pull of the trigger can empty a gun’s entire magazine.

Other victims “were caught in the crossfire,” Fitzgerald said in a statement Sunday morning.

On Sunday evening, police identified three of the deceased victims as Anitra Holloman, 21, of Bessemer, Alabama, and Tahj Booker and Carlos McCain, both 27 years old and from Birmingham.

At least four of the injured victims suffered life-threatening wounds, Fitzgerald said. All the victims were standing on the sidewalk or in the street, he said.

Four injured victims, in conditions ranging from good to critical, were still being treated at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital on Sunday morning, said Alicia Rohan, a spokesperson for the university. The hospital had treated 12 victims, including one person who died.

The Five Points South area is home to the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s main campus and is the location of many bars and restaurants.

Charlea Smith, 26, was finishing up her shift as a receptionist at the nearby Hotel Indigo when she heard gunshots. As she left the hotel, she saw chaos: people running, sirens blaring, police officers everywhere.

Smith said she used to feel safe in Five Points South, which is regularly patrolled by both university and city police officers. But now she’s anxious about going to work every day. As she headed to her shift Sunday morning, she saw blood on the sidewalk and on restaurant windows on the block where the shooting occurred.

Saturday’s attack came after four people were killed and nine injured in another shooting in Birmingham in July. Police said that in that episode, they believed at least one person fired shots into a nightclub in North Birmingham. That shooting remains unsolved.

In February, four people were killed in a shooting outside a family home in the city. A 21-year-old man is facing a capital murder charge in that shooting.

Speaking at the news conference, the city’s mayor, Randall Woodfin, described Birmingham as experiencing some of the worst consequences of an “epidemic” of gun violence in the United States.

“I tell people: When America gets a cold, it’s possible that Birmingham gets the flu,” he said.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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