South Carolina church shooting: Nine killed in Charleston

                           
Nine people have died in a shooting at a historic African-American church in Charleston in the US state of South Carolina, officials say. City police chief Gregory Mullen said eight of the victims were killed inside the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church on Thursday evening, while another person died shortly afterwards.

Police are now searching for a white male suspect in his 20s. The church's pastor, state Senator Clementa Pinckney, was among those killed, civil rights activist the Rev Al Sharpton tweeted said.

The 19th-Century Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church is one of the oldest in the US. Denmark Vesey - one of the Church's founders - was a leader of a failed slave revolt in 1822.

bbc