Three American students have been shot dead at a residential complex of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a suspect has been arrested over the incident, according to the local police.

Chapel Hill police told local news outlets that Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, was arrested and charged with killing the three Muslim students. He is being held at the Durham County Jail.

Hicks turned himself in after the shooting on Tuesday in Chapel Hill, just outside the campus of the University of North Carolina, AFP news agency reported.

Police officers responded to a report of gunshots at around 5:15pm on Tuesday, and found three people who were pronounced dead at the scene.

Police in Chapel Hill have not disclosed a possible motive for the attack. They were not immediately available for comment.

The police website released a statement confirming the three deaths and saying the department is "questioning a person of interest in the crime and has reason to believe that there is no ongoing threat to the public".

The victims were identified as 23-year-old Deah Shaddy Barakat, his 21-year-old wife, Yusor Mohammad, and her sister, 19-year-old Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, police said.

"I'm kind of in shock. I'm really confused and I have been since 5:30," said Kristen Boling, who lived in the complex where the shooting occurred.

The university said that Barakat was a second-year student at its dentistry school, his wife was planning on starting there in the fall, while her sister was a student at North Carolina State University.

Residents told local media that the complex was a peaceful place.

"It's a very quiet community," Bethany Boring, who lives in the complex, told television station WRAL.

"It's a lot of graduate and professional students. You know, professionals' families."

Friends and family and the online community shared photos of the victims via social media after the incident.

The hashtag #ChapelHillShooting went viral after the incident was reported, many of the tweets criticising the US and other Western media for not covering the shooting.

Aljazeera

@blackboxupdate