BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – A Birmingham woman is recovering today after she was wounded in an early-morning shootout along Eighth Avenue North near the Smithfield Projects.

The 23-year-old victim, who asked that her name not be used, said she had just walked out her front door when the gunfire erupted. Police and witnesses said at least 40 rounds were fired.

"I was basically caught in the crossfire of someone's gun battle,'' said the woman, who was shot in the foot. "I looked down and noticed my foot was bleeding."

A second gunshot victim showed up at Princeton Baptist Medical Center about 30 minutes later, at 12:53 a.m., with a wound to the leg. Police are trying to determine whether he was involved in the earlier shooting. He refused to give any information to detectives.

Witnesses said it was a frightening hail of gunfire. "I've never heard so much gunfire in my life,'' said Ulysses Smoot, owner of the nearby Smithfield Stop and Shop. "I had three or four customers in the shop and I told them to get down."

Birmingham police spokesman Lt. Sean Edwards said the shooting happened about 12:21 a.m. in the 100 block of 8th Avenue North. Three men standing in front of the Smithfield store opened fire on a man on a motorcycle who pulled out of the Smithfield public housing community.

Smoot said he told his customers to come behind the bullet-proof, glass-enclosed counter and to get on the floor. One of the customers suggested he lock the store's front door, but Smoot said it was too risky. "I was too afraid to get up and lock the door,'' he said.

He said the amount of gunfire was startling. "I bet you it was every bit of 40 to 50 shots,'' Smoot said.

When the shooting ended, Smoot got up to lock the door and saw one of his regular customers who lived nearby had been wounded. "She was walking toward me,'' he said. "Her foot was bloodied and everything. I called 911."

The victim said she was standing on her front porch waiting for someone to come pick her up when bullets started flying. "I just automatically went into panic mode,'' she said. "There were so many gunshots. They were shooting to kill."

At least 14 bullets peppered the woman's front porch, including her screen door and the folding chair she said she normally would have been sitting in. No one inside the apartment was injured, and she said she is thankful her two young sons weren't home at the time.

Smoot said whoever was on the motorcycle fled the scene, leaving the motorcycle behind. Police towed it for evidence.

Edwards said no one is in custody, and the shooting remains under investigation. Smoot said there has been little trouble in that area recently. "I was just telling somebody it had been a nice and quiet summer,'' he said.