AT least eight people, mostly Asian women, were shot dead at three massage parlours in the US state of Georgia on Tuesday, police confirmed today.

A spokesperson said that a 21-year-old white man was being held in custody on suspicion of carrying out the attacks.

Authorities identified the suspect as Robert Aaron Long, who was caught 150 miles south of the Georgian capital Atlanta.

Asian Americans have reported a rise in hate crimes against the community and feared their businesses were deliberately being targeted.

Four of the victims were shot at Young’s Asian Massage near Acworth, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper.

Captain Jay Baker of the Cherokee County sheriff’s office said the victims were two Asian women, a white woman and a white man, while a Hispanic man was wounded.

He said that police were investigating all options, including whether the shootings were racially motivated.

“Nothing’s going to be ruled out. We’re conducting a homicide, a multiple homicide investigation. So wherever the evidence leads us, that’s where the investigators will go,” Cpt Baker said.

Stop AAPI Hate, an organisation formed to oppose racism against Asian Americans during the coronavirus pandemic, called the killings “an unspeakable tragedy” and said the community had been “reeling from high levels of racist attacks.”