A man has died and seven others are wounded after a gunman fired indiscriminately into a crowd that had gathered for Sunday afternoon cookouts along a Baltimore street.

Police Commissioner Michael Harrison said the gunfire erupted after 5pm on a block in the city's western district of brick row homes.

Harrison said a man approached a crowd on foot and began firing in what he called 'a very tragic, very cowardly shooting.'

Baltimore police forensics officers place evidence markers next to bullet casings while investigating the scene of a shooting in Baltimore on Sunday

Speaking at the scene afterward, Harrison said the shooting appeared 'extremely targeted,' but he didn't provide a possible motive.

First responders found the victims on the 2500 block of Edmondson Avenue outside Buster's Place Barber Shop where the cookout had been set up.

One man who was shot collapsed behind a Baptist church nearby and was pronounced dead at the scene.

'It wasn't anything dealing with the church. I want to make that very clear,' acting mayor Jack Young said.

Police work near the scene of a shooting in Baltimore to gather evidence after the shooting

Harrison said initially that six others had been wounded and were taken to hospitals, but he didn't release their names or their conditions.

A police statement later said a man was killed, but didn't give his age. It said five of the survivors were men ranging in ages from 27 to 58, as well as a 30-year-old woman.

Later Sunday evening a police spokeswoman was cited by The Baltimore Sun as saying an eighth victim, a man with a gunshot wound to the leg, went to a hospital. The report did not elaborate.

Witnesses said the gunman was in a car that pulled up alongside the cookout and opened fire.

Police say they were called to the 2500 block of Edmondson Avenue in Baltimore on Sunday evening following reports of a shooting near the Perkins Square Baptist Church

Police have blocked off the streets between the Perkins Square Baptist Church (left) and a barber shop in Baltimore following a shooting on Sunday evening

Police work near the scene where authorities say several people were shot, at least one fatally, on Sunday

Police closed down the block surrounding the barber shop and the Perkins Square Baptist Church.

Commissioner Harrison said there were two cookouts taking place on opposite sides of the street Sunday, and that shell casings were found in two different locations, indicating that there may have been a second gunman, or someone firing back at the first shooter, who fled on foot.

It was unclear whether the cookouts were related, Harrison said.

Harrison and Young, in appearance with reporters, urged members of the public to help investigators with any information as to who took part or a motive.

The incident occurred in the 2500 block of Edmondson Avenue, in the area of Perkins Square Baptist Church (pictured)

It's unclear at this time exactly where on the block the shooting took place, but first responders found the victims outside Buster's Place Barber Shop where the cookout had been set up

A bin of evidence markers sits near the scene of a shooting in Baltimore on Sunday, April 28

A forensics worker collects evidence near the scene of where a gunman fired indiscriminately into a crowd that had gathered for Sunday cookouts on a Baltimore street

'Someone knows something,' Young said. 'These things... they don't happen by happenstance. People know who's doing these shootings.'

The Baltimore Sun reported that bullet casings were found scattered on the ground near grills, and a table still had items on it that appeared to be left from a cookout.

Police officers could be seen after the shooting placing small orange evidence markers on the ground, just feet from a barber shop.

Meanwhile, Harrison said authorities were seeking witnesses among the many present Sunday as they begin to try to piece together details of what happened.

The Baltimore Sun reported that bullet casings were found scattered on the ground near grills, and a table still had items on it that appeared to be left from a cookout

Commissioner Harrison said there were two cookouts taking place on opposite sides of the street Sunday, and that shell casings were found in two different locations, indicating that there may have been a second gunman, or someone firing back at the first shooter

A scooter lies among evidence markers near the scene where authorities say seven people were shot

The shooting comes roughly six weeks after Harrison's swearing-in as Baltimore police commissioner, when he promised to make the city safer and lead the department through sweeping reforms required by a federal consent decree.

It's a daunting task in Baltimore, which has plagued by drug-fueled violence for decades.

It is considered one of the country's poorest and most violent major cities, where there were more than 300 homicides in each of the past two years. Harrison is the city's 14th police leader since the mid-1990s.

The corrosive impact of the drug trade and a sea of illegal guns continue to spawn a depressing recurrence of tit-for-tat turf wars and retaliatory attacks in swaths of the city, particularly in the deeply disenfranchised areas of West Baltimore.

While city leaders continue a perennial quest to remake the city in the eyes of potential investors and visitors, Baltimore has been in the throes of a worrying increase of violent crime since 2015, when the homicide rate spiked after the city's worst rioting in decades following the death of young black man in police custody.

Police department spokeswoman Chakia Fennoy said last night she has no immediate information on what prompted the shooting or of any suspect or suspects.

Police closed down the block surrounding the barber shop and the Perkins Square Baptist Church in west Baltimore