Brazilian police are searching for a gunman who fired into a crowd at a pre-Carnival street party, killing two and wounding 10 other people.

Such violence is highly unusual before and during Carnival, which attracts hundreds of thousands of foreign visitors annually.

A police spokesman in the city of Novo Friburgo, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) northeast of Rio de Janeiro, says they don't know the motive for the shooting and haven't located the gunman.

A 43-year-old woman and a 20-year-old man were killed.

The shooting happened late Sunday at a popular neighborhood gathering known as a "bloco" party.

While Carnival is still nearly a month away, each weekend leading up to the big bash sees hundreds of warm-up parties take to the streets across the nation.