New Age | Manhunt underway in the USA after shooting on highway in Kentucky

Five people were shot along a highway in the southern US state of Kentucky, US media reported on Saturday, as police searched for a suspect considered “armed and dangerous”.

Randall Weddle, mayor of London, Kentucky, told local media that in addition to the injured, there were other injuries 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 triggered by “a dispute between two cars.”

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

There were “several serious injuries” but no confirmed deaths, local news station WYMT reported.

Authorities were searching for 32-year-old Joseph Couch, who is considered a possible suspect in the shooting that temporarily closed I-75 in both directions due to an “active shooter situation.”

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

Kentucky State Police spokesman Scottie Pennington posted on Facebook: “We are urging people to stay indoors.”

He later told the Louisville Courier Journal: “We have no idea where (the suspect) is.”

Rural Laurel County lies south of the city of Lexington on I-75, a major north-south highway that runs through the eastern half of the United States.

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

A 14-year-old boy was charged with murder, while his father, who allegedly bought him the gun as a gift, was charged with manslaughter and premeditated murder.

Gun violence is widespread in the United States, a country that has more firearms than residents.

Although polls show that Americans support stronger restrictions on gun ownership, attempts to restrict gun ownership always face fierce political resistance because of a powerful lobby for gun rights, constitutional protections, and a passionate culture surrounding gun ownership.

The gun safety package passed by Congress in 2022 was the most notable in decades, tightening background checks and supporting states that had passed so-called “red flag” laws that allow the confiscation of guns from people considered high-risk.

Still, advocates say much more needs to be done.

That same year, more than 48,000 people died from firearms, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which issued a landmark warning that year declaring gun violence a “public health crisis.”

Issues such as gun laws and gun violence are regularly discussed in elections.

Republican candidate Donald Trump, who is considered a champion of gun rights in his party, posted on social media that “our thoughts are with the victims” of the shooting in Georgia.

Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, a former prosecutor and attorney general of California and former U.S. senator, called on Congress to “finally” pass a ban on assault weapons.

It would be similar to the law that President Joe Biden helped draft as a senator and that came into effect in 1994. It expired after a decade without being renewed by Congress.