NINETEEN PEOPLE WERE shot and wounded in an outbreak of violence in Chicago overnight.

According to the Associated Press 13 people including young teenagers were injured in one 30 minute spate of shooting, with eight gunned down on a single street.

The seven men and one woman ranged in age from 14 to 20 years and were injured in a drive-by shooting on the south side of the city.

Five people were wounded in three other shootings around the same time, while police have confirmed that a total of 19 people were shot in Chicago between yesterday evening and early this morning.

According to the Chicago Tribune the eight people were shot at 79th street and Essex Avenue at around 9.30pm, and the violence is likely to have stemmed from a row between rival gangs.

Two other men were shot in the Brighton Park neighbourhood around the same time, and around a quarter of an hour later another man was shot at South Jeffery Boulevard.

Earlier yesterday evening four men were wounded in a shooting in the neighbourhood of Little Village.

A seventeen-year-old boy was shot around midnight in Englewood, while another teenager – also aged 17 – was shot at Homan Square.

- Additional reporting by AP