Iowa church shooting leaves three dead as Biden speaks on US gun violence

US president urges Congress to ban assault weapons after series of mass shootings in New York, Texas and Oklahoma

A man shot and killed two women in the car park of a church in the US state of Iowa on Thursday and then turned the gun on himself, police say.

The shooting took place on Thursday shortly after President Joe Biden delivered a major address on gun violence after mass shootings in New York, Texas and Oklahoma in recent weeks, which have rocked the US.

Another shooting on Thursday wounded two people attending a burial at a cemetery in Racine, Wisconsin.

The Iowa shooting took place outside Cornerstone Church, a fundamentalist Christian church east of the city of Ames, while a service was going on inside, said Nicholas Lennie, chief deputy of the Story County Sheriff's Office.

When deputies arrived on the scene they found all three dead, Mr Lennie said. He said he could not provide identities nor disclose what the relationship between them may have been.

“This appears to be an isolated, single-shooter incident,” he said.

Moments before, Mr Biden urged Congress to ban assault weapons, expand background checks and introduce other gun control measures to address the mass shootings.

“Enough, enough!” he said.

The US has been shaken in recent weeks by mass shootings that killed 10 black residents in Buffalo, New York, 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, and two doctors, a receptionist and a patient in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

In Racine, Wisconsin, on Thursday, several gunshots were fired into a crowd of mourners attending an afternoon graveside funeral, wounding two people, Racine police sergeant Kristi Wilcox told reporters.

One victim was treated at a local hospital and released, while the other was seriously wounded and flown to a Milwaukee hospital, Ms Wilcox said. No one was taken into custody.

Mr Biden earlier described visiting Uvalde, Texas, where the school shooting took place.

"I couldn't help but think there are too many other schools, too many other everyday places that have become killing fields, battlefields, here in America," he said.

The president called for a number of measures opposed by Republicans in Congress, including banning the sale of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, or raising the minimum age to buy those weapons to 21 from 18.

"We can't fail the American people again," Mr Biden said, pressing Republicans particularly in the US Senate to allow bills with gun control measures to come up for a vote.

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