A gunfight between two groups erupted yesterday in a New Orleans park where hundreds of people were gathered for a block party and the filming of a music video, leaving 16 people wounded, police said.

Circumstances surrounding the shooting in the city's Upper Ninth Ward, and details of what precipitated the violence, were not immediately clear, but a New Orleans Police Department spokesman told Reuters no fatalities were reported.

The spokesman said it was too soon to say whether the violence was gang-related.

Witnesses told police that both groups involved in the gun battle fled the park on foot immediately after the shooting, police said in a statement. No arrests were immediately reported.

"What we were told by one of the persons who was shot was that there was scheduled to be a video filming, or video shoot, however you want to call it, here at the playground," said Superintendent Michael Harrison of New Orleans Police Department.

"The information was probably circulated through social media and there were hundreds of people, upwards of 500 people probably in this playground when this erupted. It was an un-permitted, unplanned thing so we did not know about it until we learned that these people were in the playground and our officers were then dispatched to come and remove them from the playground," he added.

According to the statement, 10 gunshot victims were taken to area hospitals by ambulance, and six more arrived at emergency rooms "via private conveyance."

The incident unfolded at about 6.15pm Central Time at the Bunny Friend playground, following a community "second line" parade that ended a few blocks away earlier in the day, police said.

Several hundred people were gathered in the park at the time for an un-permitted block party and the impromptu filming of a music video, according to police.