San Diego (AFP) — A shooting Monday at a mosque complex in southern California killed three people, with two suspected teenage gunmen later found dead in a car from apparent self-inflicted gunshot wounds, police said.

Police said emergency response teams found the victims outside the sprawling Islamic Center of San Diego, before later finding the shooters, aged 18 and 17, also dead.

TV footage from a helicopter showed armed response teams gathered outside a building, with one unidentified person lying in a pool of blood.

“We are actively investigating this as a hate crime,” San Diego Police chief Scott Wahl told reporters. “There was definitely hate rhetoric that was involved.”

The Islamic center describes itself on its website as the largest mosque in San Diego county, which lies in southern California.

After a short period of lockdown when authorities advised area residents to stay inside, San Diego police announced that the threat at the center had been “neutralized.”

“We received a call of an active shooter at the Islamic Center. Within four minutes, officers arrived on scene and observed immediately three deceased victims out in front,” Wahl said.

“We immediately began to deploy with an active shooter response into the mosque and adjacent school,” he said, adding that police had received calls about more gunfire nearby, where a landscaper had been shot at but not hit.

A few blocks from the center, police found a vehicle in the middle of the street with the shooters dead inside.