Eight people including at least six Asian women have been killed in shootings at three different spas in the US state of Georgia.
A line of law enforcement cars block the area of a shooting at a spa in an Atlanta suburb. Photo: AFP
Police said four people were killed at a massage parlour in Acworth, a suburb north of Atlanta, and four more at two spas in the city itself.
Officials said a 21-year-old man had been arrested and was suspected in all three attacks.
No motive for today's shootings has yet been established, though hate crimes against Asian-Americans have spiked in recent months fuelled by rhetoric that blames Asian people for the spread of Covid-19.
In an address last week, President Joe Biden condemned "vicious hate crimes against Asian Americans who have been attacked, harassed, blamed and scapegoated."
The first shooting happened about 5pm local time at Youngs Asian Massage Parlor in Acworth, Cherokee County.
Sheriff's office spokesperson Capt Jay Baker said two people died at the scene and three were taken to hospital, where two more died. He later confirmed the victims were two Asian women, a white woman and a white man, and that a Hispanic man had been wounded.
A handout booking photo released by the Crisp County Sheriff's Office shows 21-year-old shooting suspect Robert Aaron Long. Photo: AFP
Less than an hour later, police were called to a "robbery in progress" at Gold Spa in northeast Atlanta.
"Upon arrival, officers located three females deceased inside the location from apparent gunshot wounds," police said in a statement.
While there, officers were called to a spa across the street, called Aromatherapy Spa, where they found another woman shot dead.
Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant said it appeared the victims were Asian. Reuters reported that, in the Cherokee County attack, a white woman and a white man were among those killed.
Investigators who had studied CCTV footage then released images of a suspect near one of the spas. Police said that, after a manhunt, Robert Aaron Long of Woodstock, Georgia, was arrested in Crisp County, about 240km south of Atlanta.
Baker said investigators were "very confident" that the same suspect was the gunman in all three shootings.
- BBC