One person has been killed and three others injured after a shooting during a concert at a New York music venue late last night.
The show was due to be headlined by rapper TI.
Witnesses reported shots were heard at the venue just after 10pm local time (3am Irish time) shortly before TI, an Atlanta rapper with a history of legal run-ins, was to take the stage at Irving Plaza.
One person was confirmed dead and three others were injured, a police spokesman said.
The 1,025-capacity club is a major venue for rising artists as well as intimate shows by established acts.
With fans rushing out of the venue, police sealed off the area of the club off Union Square.
Thousands of Americans are killed each year in gun violence but shootings are comparatively rare at music clubs, which generally assign security guards to frisk guests for weapons.
Several social media users wrote that the shots appeared to have come from either backstage or the VIP area rather than in the main part of the crowd.
Police said they had not yet made arrests or assigned a motive.
TI served seven months in prison in 2009 for attempting to buy unregistered machine guns from dealers who turned out to be undercover agents.
He spent another ten months in prison two years later for violating terms of probation on drug charges.
He released three successive number one albums between 2006 and 2008 and has won three Grammy Awards.
