A MASS shooting near a Chinese New Year event has resulted in "multiple casualties", police have said.

Police have responded to reports of a shooting that left multiple people dead in Monterey Park, just south of Los Angeles, according to law enforcement.

Details surrounding the shooting remain unclear, but shots were fired sometime after 10pm by a site of the Lunar New Year celebration.

It's unclear if the shooting was racially motivated, but California has seen an increase in anti-Asian crime, with hate crimes against Asians jumping 177 per cent in 2021.

Tens of thousands had gathered Saturday for the start of a two-day festival, one of the largest in the region.

A restaurant owner across from where the shooting happened said three people rushed into his restaurant and told him to lock the door.

They mentioned a man with a machine gun, who had multiple rounds of ammunition.

John, 27, who declined to give his last name, lives near the shooting site and told the Los Angeles Times he heard gunshots after arriving home at 10pm.

He said he went downstairs at around 11:20 p.m. to see if the shooting occurred at the Lunar New Year festival.

John said: “My first concern was I know they’re having a Lunar New Year celebration."

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He went to the scene of the shooting and saw one person being put on a stretcher, with another having a bandaged arm.

Video on social media showed police and fire units swarming an area on Garvey Avenue and treating victims.

Monterey Park is a city in Los Angeles county, around 7 miles from downtown Los Angeles.

It is unclear if a suspect has been taken into custody.

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