CHARLESTON, South Carolina (AP)

A white man who joined a prayer meeting inside a historic black church and then fatally shot nine people was captured without resistance yesterday after an all-night manhunt, police said.

Dylann Storm Roof, 21, spent nearly an hour inside the church Wednesday night before killing six women and three men, including the pastor, Charleston Police Chief Greg Mullen said. A citizen spotted his car in North Carolina, nearly four hours away.

The chief wouldn't discuss a motive. Charleston Mayor Joseph P Riley Jr called it "pure, pure concentrated evil". Stunned community leaders and politicians condemned the attack on The Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, and Attorney General Loretta Lynch said the Justice Department has begun a hate crime investigation.

The slain pastor, state Senator Clementa Pinckney, 41, was a married father of two who spent 19 years in the South Carolina legislature. He became the youngest member of the House when he was first elected as a Democrat at 23.

"He had a core not many of us have," said Senator Vincent Sheheen, who sat beside Pinckney in the Senate. "I think of the irony that the most gentle of the 46 of us - the best of the 46 of us in this chamber - is the one who lost his life."

Forever impact

The other victims were identified as Cynthia Hurd, 54; Tywanza Sanders, 26; the Rev Sharonda Singleton, 45; Myra Thompson, 59; Ethel Lance, 70; Susie Jackson, 87; the Rev Daniel Simmons Sr, 74; and DePayne Doctor, 49.

The shootings took out the heart of a community - civic leaders including three pastors, a regional library manager, a college enrollment counsellor, and a high school track coach - and left the historic church with just one living minister.

"Immediately, my heart started to sink because I knew that this was going to mean a forever impact on many, many people," Charleston County Coroner Rae Wooten said.

Wooten said autopsies would be conducted over the next several days and did not have specific information on how many times the victims were shot or the locations of their injuries.

Roof waived extradition from North Carolina yesterday and was taken to a waiting police car wearing a bulletproof vest, with shackles on his feet and his hands cuffed behind his back.