US: Eight people, most of them Asian women, were killed in shootings at three different spas in the US state of Georgia Tuesday, with a 21-year-old white man in custody on suspicion of staging all three attacks, police said.
The shootings came with many Asian-Americans already on edge following a recent spike in hate crimes against the community, and triggered immediate fears that Asian-run businesses may have been deliberately targeted.
Four of the victims were killed at Young's Asian Massage near Acworth, a suburb of Georgia's capital city Atlanta, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
Captain Jay Baker of the Cherokee County sheriff's office told the paper the victims were two Asian women, a white woman, and a white man, while a Hispanic man was wounded.
The Atlanta police department separately confirmed that four women were found dead at two business establishments in northeast Atlanta.
Police told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that all four Atlanta victims were Asian women.
Authorities have identified Robert Aaron Long as a suspect in all three shootings. - AFP
