31 Jul 2016

One dead, four injured in Texas shootings

10:09 pm on 31 July 2016

Separate shooting incidents in the Texas capital of Austin have left one woman dead and several others injured.

One woman was killed and three people were hospitalised with bullet wounds in overnight shooting incidents in the state's capital of Austin, emergency officials said on social media early on Sunday.

United states police car, file photo

Photo: 123RF

Austin police said in a message on Twitter there had been "separate shootings within the same area" of the city's downtown, adding: "Both scenes are secure at this time".

The Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services agency said on Twitter that one woman had been killed and two other women and one man taken to hospital with gunshot wounds.

A fourth person was also hurt but declined medical treatment, according to the social media post from the agency.

An Austin police representative declined in an email to immediately provide further details.

The shootings follow several major acts of gun violence in the United States over the past several weeks.

On June 12, a gunman who sympathised with Islamist extremist groups killed 49 people at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida, in the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history.

On July 7, a US military veteran shot and killed five police officers in Dallas in the deadliest day for US law enforcement since the September 11, 2001, attacks. Just over a week later another gunman killed three officers in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Both attackers were killed by police.

Austin has a population of more than 900,000.

-Reuters