Manhunt underway in US after Kentucky highway shooting

WASHINGTON, United States — Five people were shot along a highway in the southern US state of Kentucky, US media reported Saturday, as police hunted for a suspect considered "armed and dangerous."

Randall Weddle, mayor of London, Kentucky, told local media that in addition to the wounded there were more people hurt in a car accident caused by the shooting.

The shooting did not appear to be random, he told the Louisville Courier Journal, while a radio host reported that it was sparked "by two cars in an altercation."

The suspected shooter opened fire onto Interstate 75 from a wooded area off the highway, Weddle said.

There were "multiple severe injuries" but no confirmed deaths, local news station WYMT reported.

Authorities were searching for Joseph Couch, 32, considered a person of interest in the shooting that temporarily closed I-75 in both directions due to the "active shooter situation."

"Consider armed and dangerous," the sheriff's office said in a Facebook post. "Do not attempt to approach."

Kentucky State Police spokesman Scottie Pennington posted on Facebook that "we are urging people to stay inside."

He later told the Louisville Courier Journal that "we have no clue where (the suspect) is at."

Rural Laurel County is south of the city of Lexington along I-75, a major north-south artery cutting across the eastern half of the United States.

Saturday's incident comes after two students and two teachers were killed in a school shooting in Georgia.

A 14-year-old boy was charged with murder while his father, who had allegedly purchased the gun for him as a gift, was charged with involuntary manslaughter and second-degree murder.

More guns than people

Gun violence is common in the United States, a country where there are more firearms than people.

Despite polls showing Americans favor more gun restrictions, a powerful gun rights lobby, constitutional protections and a passionate culture around firearm ownership mean that attempts to clamp down on weapons are always met with stiff political resistance.

A 2022 gun safety package passed by Congress was the most notable in decades, beefing up background checks and supporting states that passed so-called "Red Flag" laws, which allow for the seizure of weapons from people deemed high risk.

Still, advocates say much more needs to be done.

That same year, over 48,000 people died as a result of firearms, according to the surgeon general, which this year issued a landmark advisory declaring gun violence a "public health crisis."

Gun rights and gun violence regularly feature in elections.

Republican candidate Donald Trump, seen by his party as a champion for gun rights, posted on social media that "our hearts are with the victims" of the Georgia shooting.

Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, a onetime prosecutor and attorney general of California and former US senator, called on Congress to "finally" pass an assault weapons ban.

It would be similar to the one President Joe Biden helped write as a senator and get passed into law in 1994. It expired after a decade, without being renewed by Congress.