3 dead, 9 others injured in Chicago shootings

Three people have been shot dead and nine others injured in separate shootings in Chicago, Illinois, officials say.

The shootings occurred on Saturday, with the most recent one at 11:25 pm when a 36-year-old man was fatally shot.

The man was in a car when another vehicle pulled over nearby and someone inside it opened fire. The man tried to drive away when he crashed into some other parked cars.

The shooter shot multiple times and the man was pronounced dead at the scene, according to officials.

In another shooting around 5:20 pm, a 23-year-old man, who was standing in front of a home, was shot by two people who approached him.

The man was shot multiple times in the torso and was rushed to hospital where he was pronounced dead.

At around 2 pm, two men, aged 27 and 26, were shot while sitting in a parked vehicle, when a group of people accosted them on foot and started shooting at them.

The 27-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene due to head and torso injuries, but the other, who was shot in the left leg and arm, torso and bottom, was hospitalized in stable condition.

Eight other people were also wounded in other shootings which happened earlier in the day, officials noted.

The city recorded 480 homicides in 2015, while the murder rate has surpassed 500 so far this year.

The majority of homicides in the third largest US city are gun-related.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), firearms are the cause of death for more than 33,000 people in the US every year, a number that includes accidental discharge, murder, and suicides.