Shawdesh desk:

Police have arrested a man suspected of shooting five people — one of whom died — at an Atlanta hospital on Wednesday, authorities in the southern US city said.

One person was killed and four were injured when Deion Patterson allegedly opened fire in a hospital waiting room just after midday (1700 GMT). Patterson then allegedly stole a truck that had been left running at a nearby gas station and fled.

A manhunt went into the night before Patterson was apprehended outside the city in neighboring Cobb County.

“Law enforcement have taken the suspect into custody,” Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said at a news conference Wednesday evening.

The victims, all women, were aged between 25 and 71, police said at an earlier news conference.

The White House said President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris had been briefed on the shooting.

There have been more than 190 mass shootings — defined as four or more people wounded or killed — so far this year in the United States, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

With more firearms than inhabitants, the United States has the highest rate of gun-related deaths of any developed country: 49,000 in 2021, up from 45,000 the year before.