Rival gunmen have shot at each other in a crowded downtown nightlife district in Alabama's capital city, killing two people and injuring 12 others, police say.

The dead included a 43-year-old woman and a 17-year-old male while five of the 14 people wounded were hospitalised with life-threatening injuries, including a juvenile, police said.

No one had been arrested as of Sunday afternoon as police appealed to the public for information about the shooting and sorted through a complicated crime scene that involved multiple people firing at each other.

Police were still trying to piece together a motive for why the shooting started.

Police were called about 11.30pm to what Montgomery Police chief James Graboys described as a "mass shooting" that happened within earshot of officers on routi

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