ANKARA: An attacker armed with a shotgun killed eight people in three villages in western Turkiye on Thursday and seriously wounded another before police apprehended him in a neighboring province, officials and news reports said.

The motive for the shooting spree in Afyonkarahisar province was not immediately known.

The state-run Anadolu Agency said three victims were found in the village of Ayazini, while three others were killed in nearby Kiyir. Two women who were shot in Yukaritandir village later died in hospital despite being rushed for treatment.

One other person was critically wounded and remained in hospital, according to the governor's office.

The three villages are in a rural area near Afyonkarahisar, a town located roughly halfway between the capital Ankara and the coastal city of Izmir.

Police launched a major search for the gunman following the attacks. He was eventually captured in neighboring Eskisehir province, the Afyonkarahisar governor's office said.

Grainy CCTV footage published by Turkish media showed a man wearing a black jacket, white trousers and glasses carrying a rifle while standing beside a faded red minivan.

Police later found the vehicle stuck in mud on the outskirts of Eskisehir, a university town about 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of the shooting sites. The suspect had apparently abandoned the minivan and fled on foot, private broadcaster NTV reported.

The DHA news agency said investigators were also examining whether the attacks were connected to an earlier shooting in central Afyonkarahisar, in which a woman sitting in a car was shot and seriously wounded by a gunman.