PHILADELPHIA — Five people were shot to death over a span of six hours on Sunday, three of them after an argument in a neighborhood bar, police said.

The deaths add to the city's escalating murder rate, on pace to be the highest in a decade.

Police said a man opened fire shortly after midnight at Abay Wheelers Bar in the Kingsessing section of the city, killing three and injuring a fourth man.

Arthur Joshua Jammal Jennings, 20, Claude Demetrius Snelling, 30, and Jamar Franklin Thompson, 31, all died of multiple gunshot wounds, said Jeff Moran, a spokesman for the city Medical Examiner's office.

Another fatal shooting occurred in the Wynnefield section of West Philadelphia around 1:50 a.m., police said. Charles Tunstall, 23, no known address, was shot in the head and died a few hours later at a hospital, police said.

Around 4:55 a.m., an unidentified man in North Philadelphia was shot multiple times in the chest and pronounced dead half an hour later, police said.

The killings bring the total for the year to 232. No suspects were arrested in any of Sunday's shootings.