Man arrested after fatally shooting three Muslim students at the University of North Carolina

A man has been arrested and charged with fatally shooting three people near the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus on Tuesday, the school said.

The victims were named as Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23, his wife Yusor Mohammad, 21 and her sister, Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha, 19.

Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, of Chapel Hill was arrested and charged with three counts of first-degree murder, according to a statement on the school's alert website.

The police have offered no motive for the killings. The hashtag #MuslimLivesMatter was trending nationally on Twitter early on Wednesday, with many postings discussing the shooting.

The school statement said police responded to a report of gunshots at 5:11 p.m. local time and found the three victims, who were all pronounced dead at the scene.

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.

Hicks is being held at the Durham County Jail, the statement said.

Further information was not immediately available.

(This story corrects spelling of victim's name to Abu-Salha in paragraph 2)

(Reporting by Curtis Skinner in San Francisco; Editing by Crispian Balmer)