Woman arrested at Atlanta airport after city centre shootings

File picture [for illustration]

A female suspect was arrested at Atlanta's international airport on Monday, ending an hours-long search after shootings in the city centre that left two dead and a third wounded.

The Atlanta Police Department said the shootings were not random and the victims were likely targeted.

Responding to a report of a shooting at around 1:45 PM (1745 GMT), police found two people at an upscale condominium building near Colony Square, an office and shopping complex in Atlanta's Midtown area.

One died and the other was taken to a hospital.

While officers were at the first location, police received another call about a shooting less than a mile to the southeast at a high-rise office building, where the third victim was found.

That person also appeared to have been shot and later died at a hospital, police said.

Officers were investigating the connection between the two locations. Initial information indicated that a female suspect was responsible for both incidents.

TaQuanda Alexander, 35, a cook who just moved to Atlanta, was at Colony Square hoping to fill out some job applications at some of the restaurants when she heard the police sirens.

"The policemen came and told all to get inside," she said. "There were sirens and a helicopter and all that. We were shaking. All we heard was that people got shot."

Before the suspect was located at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and taken into custody, police blocked off multiple blocks in Midtown, and people in some buildings were directed to shelter in place.

More from International News

  • US military targets IS in Syria strikes

    The US military said on Saturday it carried out multiple strikes in Syria targeting ISIS as part of an operation that Washington launched in December after an attack on American personnel.

  • Israeli fire kills three people in Gaza, tension rises

    Israeli fire killed at least three Palestinians in two separate incidents across Gaza, local health authorities said, as tension rises over continued violence.

  • Tens of thousands protest in Minneapolis over fatal ICE shooting

    Tens of thousands of people marched through Minneapolis on Saturday to decry the fatal shooting of a woman by a US immigration agent, part of more than 1,000 rallies planned nationwide over the weekend against the federal government's deportation drive.

  • One dead in Australian bush fires

    At least one person has died in Australia's southeast where bushfires raging for days have razed buildings, cut power to thousands of homes and burned swathes of bushland, police said on Sunday.