Seven people have been shot in the United States outside a theater where a graduation ceremony was taking place. Two of them were killed, as the police in the US state of Virginia announced late in the evening (local time) at a press conference.

The fatalities were two men aged 18 and 36. The police reportedly took a 19-year-old suspect into custody. He is to be charged with double manslaughter. The background to the incident in Richmond, the capital of Virginia, is still unclear. It is also unclear whether the incident is related to the graduation ceremony.