FRESNO (NYTIMES) - Four people were fatally shot and six others wounded after at least one gunman snuck into the backyard of a home in Fresno, California, during a family gathering and opened fire on Sunday (Nov 17), the authorities said.

Friends and family at the home were watching a football game in the backyard when an unknown number of gunmen opened fire into the crowd, said Lieutenant Bill Dooley of the Fresno Police Department. Lt Dooley said the gunmen then fled the scene.

The authorities received reports of the shooting around 8pm local time.

"What we found were several individuals deceased in the backyard," Lt Dooley said at a news conference late Sunday night.

Some people were taken to a nearby hospital and some were in critical condition, he said.

As of Sunday night, the police had not made any arrests in connection with the shooting. Lt Dooley did not release any information about the gunmen.

Detectives were "canvassing the area searching for witnesses and anyone with surveillance cameras", Lt Dooley said.

The shooting occurred on the 5300 block of East Lamona Avenue, just south of the Fresno Yosemite International Airport.

Videos posted on social media showed police cars and ambulances crowding a street lined with residential homes.

#BREAKING MASSIVE police response in a neighborhood by Peach/Pine in Fresno. Streets clogged with cars/ambulances...a lot of people being put on stretchers. Waiting to learn more. pic.twitter.com/HUT03Cdryp — Dennis Valera (@dennisreports) November 18, 2019

Fresno, a sprawling city of more than 500,000 people, is surrounded by vast expanses of almond and fruit trees. It is about 280km south-east of Sacramento.

California, which has some of the toughest gun laws in the nation, has seen a rash of mass shootings in recent weeks.

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On Thursday, a 16-year-old student killed two of his classmates and wounded three others in a shooting at a high school in Santa Clarita, California.

Two shootings at separate Halloween parties, one in a San Francisco suburb and another in Long Beach, south of Los Angeles, killed a total of eight people.

The shooting at an Airbnb rental in Orinda, the San Francisco suburb, appeared to involve rival gangs, the sheriff of Contra Costa County David Livingston said at a news briefing last Friday. A total of 10 people were shot in what the sheriff called a "blood bath".