Shooting at Mardi Gras parade in Louisiana wounds five people, including child

Five people, including a six-year-old child, have been wounded in a shooting during a parade in Louisiana, sending people in the crowd fleeing for cover, authorities say.

The shooting occurred shortly after the midday start of the Mardi Gras in the Country parade in Clinton, East Feliciana sheriff Jeff Travis told reporters.

Travis said three people in the area who had firearms were taken into custody but that it wasn’t clear whether they were involved in the shooting.

At the time of the shooting in Clinton on Saturday, there had been at least 24 mass shootings in the US so far in the year, according to the nonpartisan Gun Violence Archive.