Four people were killed and multiple others were wounded in a shooting near a Shiite mosque in Oman's capital Muscat, police said on Tuesday.

The shooting was a rare event in the otherwise stable sultanate, which has a Muslim-majority population, including a small minority of Shiites.

Authorities said Pakistanis were among the wounded, but the numbers had yet to be confirmed, according to Islamabad's embassy in Oman.

Pakistan's ambassador to Oman, Imran Ali, visited some of the wounded in the hospital, the embassy posted on social media platform X.

The US embassy in Muscat issued a security alert following the shooting and cancelled all visa appointments Tuesday.

"US citizens should remain vigilant, monitor local news and heed directions of local authorities," the embassy wrote on social media platform X.

While several mosque attacks have roiled the Arab Gulf region in recent years, the incident on Tuesday is unprecedented for Oman.

A 2015 suicide attack on a Shiite mosque in Kuwait killed at least 27 worshippers and wounded more than 200 others. It was claimed by the Islamic State group.

That same year, Saudi Arabia saw two attacks on Shiite mosques in the span of one week. (AFP)