There are conflicting reports over the number of people who have been killed in two further shootings in the United States. Police believe at least three people have died following the attacks at a church and youth centre in the western state of Colorado. The authorities have not yet determined whether the incidents are connected, but say descriptions of the two attackers correspond.

Four people were wounded when a man wielding a gun was shot dead by a security guard in the car park of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs.

That shooting came twelve hours after the first, at a youth centre 120 kilometres away in the state capital, Denver. A man and woman in their twenties were killed and two men were injured there by a gunman who has not yet been traced.

Last week, eight shoppers died and five more were wounded by a youth who then turned his weapon on himself at a mall in the neighbouring state of Nebraska.