At least 30 people were injured early on Saturday morning when a vehicle drove into a crowd outside a club on Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles, the city’s fire department and local media reports said.

At least seven people were in critical condition and six others were seriously injured, the fire department said in an online statement.

The incident occurred just before 2am local time (2pm PKT), the fire department said.

Captain Adam VanGerpen, a fire department spokesman, was quoted by ABC News as saying that a paramedic assessing one of the injured found a gunshot wound.

The car, he said, apparently first careened into a taco truck outside the venue and then ploughed through a valet stand and into a large group of people. Videos posted on X showed roads being sealed off and patients being taken away in ambulances.

The Los Angeles Police Department said on X that it was still investigating why the driver slammed into the crowd.

Officers responding to a radio call of an assault with a deadly weapon found the driver had been shot while being assaulted by onlookers, the police said, adding that he was taken to a hospital and his condition was unknown.

A man suspected of shooting the driver fled the scene on foot and possibly was armed with a silver revolver, the police said.