WASHINGTON (AFP) - A gunman shot three people dead and wounded two others on Sunday at a Jewish community centre and a retirement community in Kansas on the eve of Passover, police said.

The suspect, who is in custody, was not local and did not know the victims, Overland Park Police Department chief John Douglass told reporters.

The 70-year-old white man used a shotgun in the assault and investigators are trying to determine whether a handgun and assault rifle were involved.