US: Two killed at shooting in Alabama church

Birmingham: Two persons were shot dead and another person was injured in a shooting inside a church near Birmingham, Alabama on Thursday.

The culprit is yet to be identified and is currently under police custody, reported CNN citing the statement of Captain Shane Ware of the Vestavia Hills Police Department. The incident occurred at the St. Stephens Episcopal Church at around 6:22 pm Central Time (CT), said Ware.

The wounded victim is undergoing treatment for an "unknown injury" at a hospital, he added.

The church calendar had an event called "The Boomers Potluck" scheduled at the same time as that of the shooting, but it remains unclear from the media briefings whether the violence occurred there, reported CNN.

Ware refused to take questions at any of the three media briefings on the shooting.

Meanwhile, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey expressed her condolences over the incident which claimed two lives.

"I am glad to hear the shooter is in custody. This should never happen - in a church, in a store, in the city, or anywhere. We continue to closely monitor the situation", CNN quoted Ivey as saying.

The US has been witnessing back-to-back acts of gun violence in the country with at least 246 fatal shootings till June this year, as counted by the Gun Violence Archive, reported New York Times.

The May 24 massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 children and two teachers, was the bloodiest mass shooting in the United States this year, which occurred only 10 days after another shooting that killed 10 people at a supermarket in Buffalo.