Eight people have died after shootings at three massage parlours in Atlanta and its suburbs, police said.

A manhunt was launched in Georgia and a 21-year-old man has been taken into custody, officers added.

Atlanta Police chief Rodney Bryant said three people were killed at a spa in northeast Atlanta, while a fourth person was killed at another spa across the street.

He said all four victims were female, and “it appears that they may be Asian”.

Atlanta police officers responding to a call of a robbery in progress at one spa around 5.50pm found three women dead from apparent gunshot wounds, police said.

While they were at that scene, they learned of a call reporting shots fired at another spa across the street and found a woman who appeared to have been shot dead inside the business.

Earlier, around 5pm, five people were shot at Young’s Asian Massage Parlour in Acworth, about 30 miles north of Atlanta, Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Captain Jay Baker said.

Two of the victims were dead and three were taken to a hospital where two of them also died, Captain Baker said.

A man suspected in the Acworth shooting was captured by surveillance video pulling up to the business around 4.50pm on Tuesday, minutes before the shooting, authorities said.

Captain Baker said the suspect, Robert Aaron Long, of Woodstock, was taken into custody in Crisp County, about 150 miles south of Atlanta.

He said they believe Long is also the suspect in the Atlanta shootings.