A lone suspect fired on a small group meeting at a church in Alabama

Church members console each other after a shooting at the St Stephen's Episcopal Church in Vestavia, Alabama. Photo / AP

A lone suspect fired on a small group meeting at a suburban church near one of Alabama's major cities on Thursday evening (local time), fatally wounding two people and injuring a third before being taken into custody, authorities said.

The attack occurred at Saint Stephen's Episcopal Church in the Birmingham suburb of Vestavia Hills, Police Captain Shane Ware said.

He said officers rushed to the church after dispatchers received a call reporting an active shooter at the church at 6.22pm.

"From what we've gathered from the circumstances of this evening, a lone suspect entered a small church group meeting and began shooting. Three people were shot. Two people are deceased. One person is being treated for an unknown injury at a local hospital," Ware said at a late Thursday news briefing.

He added that a suspect was in custody and there was "no threat to the community at this time".

At an earlier briefing, he had initially said one person had died and two wounded by the shooting had been hospitalised. Meanwhile, he has declined to identify the suspect or the victims or provide further details of the attack, saying his next briefing would be Friday.

The FBI, US Marshals Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco and Explosives dispatched agents to the scene. Investigators remained hours past nightfall, with yellow police tape cordoning off the church complex and emergency police and fire vehicles with flashing lights blocked the route to the church. Nearby, people huddled and prayed.

The Rev. Kelley Hudlow, an Episcopal priest in the Diocese of Alabama, told broadcast outlet WBRC that the church and the community were stunned by the shooting.

"It is shocking. Saint Stephen's is a community built on love and prayers and grace and they are going to come together," she said in a live interview with the station.

"People of all faiths are coming together to pray to hope for healing."

She added that the church was receiving supportive messages from all over the US and the world.

"We need everybody out there. Pray, think, meditate and send love to this community because we are going to need all of it," she said.

The church's website had listed a "Boomers Potluck" for Thursday night.

"There will be no programme, simply eat and have time for fellowship," the flyer read.

News outlet al.com said two wounded people had been rushed to UAB Hospital in Birmingham — before police reported one of them had died. It was the latest in a string of deadly shootings that has rattled the nation.

On Saturday thousands of people rallied in the US and at the National Mall in Washington, DC, to renew calls for stricter gun control measures after recent deadly mass shootings from Buffalo, New York, to Uvalde, Texas. Survivors of mass shootings and other incidents of gun violence also have lobbied legislators and testified on Capitol Hill this month.

Alabama Governor Kay Ivey issued a statement lamenting what she called the shocking and tragic loss of life at the church. Though she said she was glad to hear the suspect was in custody, she added, "This should never happen — in a church, in a store, in the city or anywhere."

Vestavia Hills is a residential community just southeast of Birmingham, one of Alabama's two most populous cities.