Aerial footage of the scene from Boston broadcaster WCVB-TV showed a gaping hole in a storefront window at an outdoor mall in Hingham, about 24km south of downtown Boston.

First responders could be seen tending to injured people on the sidewalk.

The black SUV came to rest at the back of the store and the driver had to be extricated from the vehicle, the station reported.

“You’d have to really be picking up speed to end up in the storage area at the back side of the Apple store,” Frank O’Brien, who was visiting the Derby Street Shops shopping centre, told The Patriot Ledger newspaper.

The black SUV was travelling at an undetermined speed when it ploughed into the store within an hour of its opening and struck “multiple people,” Plymouth district attorney Timothy Cruz said at a press conference.

Cruz said 16 people were sent to hospitals, and said an active investigation was underway. Authorities did not say if the driver was injured. No details were released about those with injuries.

The driver is currently with police officers, WCVB-TV reported citing Cruz.

The Hingham Police Department did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for more information.