Three men including at least one innocent bystander have been shot in busy midtown Manhattan just a few blocks from the Empire State Building.

The victims were wounded on West 31st Street between 5th Avenue and Broadway at 4.40pm Sunday.

A man reportedly pulled a gun following an argument with another man outside a liquor store, police said at a press conference.

Two men who appear to be wounded are seen on the ground outside a liquor store in midtown

NYPD cops responded to the scene of the shooting in midtown Manhattan on 31st Street

The shooting happened between 5th and Broadway, just a few blocks from the Empire State Building

The three victims were taken to Bellevue Hospital and are in stable condition

The New York Posts identifies the three men as Abdoulaye Kane, 25, Ahmend Kabia, 43, and Adrian Burduja, 29, who was riding his bike and was not the intended target but a bystander.

Police sources say one of the other men was also an innocent bystander.

Kabia was shot in the shoulder, Kane suffered a gunshot wound to the arm and Burduja, a Romanian tourist, was shot in the back.

They were taken to Bellevue Hospital and are in stable condition. CBS New York reports Kane has been treated and released.

Police are hunting for gunman and another man who was with him. No arrests have been made

Police are hunting for gunman and another man who was with him, who both fled eastbound on West 31st Street. They are described as two black men dressed in dark clothing.

No arrests have been made.

One person in the vicinity of the shooting told NBC New York: 'I was passing by and I heard four shots. I was hiding like everybody; everybody was running around.'