At least four people have been killed in a mass shooting in Georgia – with a suspect still on the run.
The gun spree happened in the Dogwood Lakes area of Hampton at about 10.45am on Saturday, a statement from Henry County officials said.
‘The suspect is still at large and the public should avoid the area,’ the statement added.
‘There is a heavy police presence.’
Hampton, an American city of about 8,500 people, is about 40 miles south of Atlanta.
County government spokeswoman Melissa Robinson said: ‘I can confirm that four people are deceased. As of right now, the suspect is still at large.’
Police in the region plan to release more details during a press conference later today.
Several local law enforcement agencies are assisting with the investigation, as is the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
News of the shooting comes after it emerged the United States has now had the deadliest six months of mass shootings in over 15 years.
The country has had 28 mass killings since January 1, according to a database maintained by the Associated Press, USA Today, and Northeastern University.
According to the database, over 140 people were killed in the US between the beginning of January and the end of June.
The overwhelming death toll is the highest in the first six months of a year since the database’s founding 2006.
All but one of these attacks were carried out by people armed with firearms.
Earlier this year, researchers estimated that mass killings were happening once every 6.53 days this year.
If the US maintains this pace, they are on track to meet or exceed last year’s total of 42.
‘We used to say there were two to three dozen a year,’ said James Alan Fox, a criminology professor at Northeastern who maintains the database.
‘The fact that there’s 28 in half a year is a staggering statistic.’
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