The shootings took place on a bustling night, with huge crowds packing downtown Chicago for the Christmas tree lighting and the first night of Christkindlmarket.

A 14-year-old is dead and 8 others were injured in a pair of shootings in downtown Chicago on Friday night, police said.

At least three people were loaded into ambulances in the Loop late Friday night after police responded to reports of shots fired near the Chicago Theatre, just blocks from Millennium Park, where the city lit the official Christmas tree just hours earlier.