DHAKA: The Fourth of July holiday weekend brought an explosion of gunfire to Chicago, with more than 50 people shot and nine killed.

The violence was widespread in the nation’s third-largest city from Thursday evening through Sunday midnight, police said. There were 50 separate shooting incidents that left 53 wounded and nine dead, police said.

The Times of India reports this on Tuesday.

Many more people were shot in the early hours of Monday, bringing the number of wounded to more than 80 and the body count to 14.

At a news conference Monday morning, Chicago police superintendent Garry McCarthy called the violence ‘unacceptable,’ blaming it in part on a ‘proliferation of firearms.’

Police said five people were shot by officers, and at least two of them were killed.

In three of the incidents, the victims had pointed weapons at officers when they were shot, the Chicago Police department said in a statement. 

A fourth man was shot and seriously wounded by police after he told them he had a weapon. There were 21 shooting incidents just on Sunday, police said.

McCarthy said gangs and repeated criminal offenders cherish their weapons and are more likely to engage in gun battles with police than discard their guns because of lax state and federal laws. McCarthy has repeatedly called for mandatory minimum sentences for gun crimes.

Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, who has also called for tighter controls on firearms, condemned the shootings.

BDST: 0919 HRS, JULY 8, 2104