Seven people, including a two-year-old child, his mother and four teenagers, were wounded by bullets on a street corner in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania, northeast), the police chief of the American megacity said Thursday.

The most seriously injured victim is a teenager who was hospitalized in critical condition, Danielle Outlaw said.

The victims were hit by gunfire yesterday evening shortly before 6pm (local time; 01am today Greek time), a few hundred meters from a primary school, Ms Outlo said, clarifying that the incident did not start there.

“As a parent myself, I understand people’s fear,” the Philadelphia police chief said, without giving details on who opened fire or why.

The US is paying an extremely heavy price for the widespread proliferation of firearms on its soil and the ease with which Americans can gain access to them.

The country has more guns than residents; one in three adults owns at least one gun and one in two lives in a household with at least one gun.

A consequence of their spread is the extremely high number of deaths in the US due to weapons on an annual basis (ranging from 40,000 to 50,000, half of which are suicides), which does not bear comparison with the indicators in other developed countries.