High school homecoming celebrations in Mississippi ended in gunfire, with two separate shootings on opposite sides of the US state that left at least six people dead and many more injured.

Four of the dead were killed in downtown Leland, after a high school football homecoming game in the Mississippi Delta region on the state’s western edge, a state senator said yesterday.

About 20 people were injured in the gunfire after people gathered in downtown Leland following the game, state Senator Derrick Simmons said.

Of the 20 wounded, four were in critical condition and flown from a hospital in nearby Greenville to a larger medical centre in the state capital city of Jackson, Simmons told The Associated Press.

Simmons said he was being updated on developments by the Washington County Sheriff’s Office as well as from other law enforcement authorities in the Delta.

“People were just congregating and having a good time in the downtown of Leland,” Simmons said of the town with a population of fewer than 4000 people.

He was told that after the gunfire, the scene was “very chaotic,” as police, sheriff’s deputies and ambulances “responded from all over”.

“It’s just senseless gun violence,” he said.

“What we are experiencing now is just a proliferation of guns just being in circulation.”

No arrests have been announced, and Simmons said that he had not heard any information about possible suspects.

“They are on the ground working and I have all the faith in the world that they will get to the bottom of this,” he said.

“As the state senator for the area, we are asking any and all individuals who might have any information regarding the horrific shooting last night to come forward and provide whatever information they have,” he added.

Separate shooting in eastern Mississippi killed two

Meanwhile, police in the small Mississippi town of Heidelberg in the eastern part of the state are investigating a shooting during that community’s homecoming weekend that left two people dead.

Both of them were killed on the school campus on Friday night, Heidelberg Police Chief Cornell White said.

He declined to say whether the victims were students or provide other information about the crimes.

“Right now we’ve still got a subject at large, but I can’t give specifics,” White said.

An 18-year-old man was being sought for questioning in the Heidelberg shooting, the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

The sheriff asked that anyone with information contact the police chief or sheriff’s office.

The shooting in Heidelberg happened on the school campus where the Heidelberg Oilers were playing their homecoming football game Friday night.

The town of about 640 residents is about 137 kilometres south-east of the state capital of Jackson.

It wasn’t clear exactly when the gunfire occurred or how close it was to the stadium.

White said he was at the scene investigating, and that more information might be released in the coming days.