Eight people killed in massage parlour massacre

At least eight people, many of them Asian women, have been killed in shootings at three massage parlours in Georgia in the US.

Three people were killed and two others injured at a massage parlour in Cherokee County, near Atlanta, late Tuesday afternoon (local time), officials said.

Shortly after shootings at two Atlanta massage parlours that are across the street from each other left four dead. Another person was killed at another parlour nearby.

Police did not say whether they believed the later shootings were connected to the one in Cherokee County, which is about 50 kilometres northwest of Atlanta.

Authorities were searching for a suspect seen driving a dark-coloured SUV that had pulled up to the Cherokee County business.

Cherokee County Sheriff's Captain Jay Baker said 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long of Woodstock, Georgia, was taken into custody in Crisp County, about 240 kilometres south of Atlanta, on Tuesday night.

How the Georgia massage parlour shootings unfolded

Capt Baker said five people were found with gunshot injuries at Young's Asian Massage near Acworth, about 52 kilometres northwest of Atlanta, according to CNN.

Two people died at the scene and three others were taken to hospital where two were declared dead.

CCTV footage shows a man pulling up at the business about 4.50pm just minutes before the shooting, authorities said.

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Atlanta police were then called to a reported robbery about 5.50pm at the Gold Massage Spa on Piedmont Road, in Atlanta, where three bodies were found, Chief Rodney Bryant confirmed.

While officers were at the scene, they were told of a report of shots being fired at another spa across the street.

There they found a woman who appeared to have been shot dead inside the business.

Chief Bryant said all four victims were female and "it appears that they may be Asian".

with Associated Press

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