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Atlanta (AP) - Eight people were shot dead within a short time on Tuesday in three different massage salons in the southern US state of Georgia.
A good three hours after the incidents in and around the capital Atlanta, the police arrested a 21-year-old who is suspected of having been involved in the incidents, as US media reported, citing the police.
Four people died that afternoon (local time) in Cherokee County, around 50 kilometers north of Atlanta, in an Asian massage parlor.
Four other people were shot dead in two Atlanta spas just an hour later.
A motif has not yet been announced.
All three cases are probably related
The Atlanta police said that the man who was taken into custody was "very likely" responsible for all three incidents, as the broadcaster CNN reported.
Videos would prove that.
Work is still in progress to confirm that all three cases are related, NBC News reported.
At first it was said that there was no evidence that the incidents were related.
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The four people killed in Atlanta were women who appeared to have Asian roots, NBC News and CNN reported.
There was initially no information about the four Cherokee County victims.
On Tuesday afternoon (local time), Cherokee County police found two people shot dead and three injured in an Asian massage parlor ("Young's Asian Massage"), CNN and NBC News reported, citing police.
Two injured died in the hospital.
Crime scenes almost 50 kilometers apart
Less than an hour later, the police were called to a crime scene in Atlanta about 50 kilometers away for a robbery - and discovered three people shot dead in a spa.
Not far away, across the street, another dead person was found in an aromatherapy spa, said Atlanta police chief Rodney Bryant.
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A good three hours after the shooting in Cherokee County, a 21-year-old suspect was taken into custody about 150 miles south of Atlanta, the police said.
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