Turkey shooting kills eight as police hunt gunman

Eight people were shot dead in three villages in west-central Turkey on Thursday, and police were searching for the gunman, local officials said.

The Afyonkarahisar governor's office said eight people were killed and one person was seriously injured in armed attacks in the province.

The shootings took place in a rural area near Afyonkarahisar, a town between Ankara and Izmir. Anadolu state news agency said two women with gunshot wounds were found on a road in Yukaritandir village and died after being taken to hospital.

Anadolu said three more bodies were found in Kiyir village and another three in Ayazini village. It said another person was in critical condition in hospital, without saying where that person had been injured.

Turkish media published CCTV footage showing a man holding a rifle beside a faded red minivan. Private broadcaster NTV said police later found the vehicle stuck in mud on the outskirts of Eskisehir, about 100 kilometres north, and that the suspect had fled on foot.

DHA news agency said investigators were checking whether the attacks were connected to an earlier incident in central Afyonkarahisar in which a woman in a car was shot and seriously injured.