President Obama has condemned the shooting deaths of three young Muslims in North Carolina.

He has spoken for the first time on Tuesday's murders he's called 'brutal and outrageous'.

A preliminary FBI investigation has been open to see if the 46 year old shooter Craig Stephen Hicks has broken any federal laws.

The killings were allegedly over car park spaces but he was known to post anti-religious messages on Facebook and human rights groups are labelling the attack a hate crime.