The man who shot dead two young women in a Louisiana cinema carried out the killings in a "slow and methodical" way, officials have said.

John Russell Houser, 59, took a handgun into a Lafayette theatre before standing up 20 minutes into an evening showing of the film Trainwreck and shooting dead two people seated in front of him.

State governor Bobby Jindal said: "He took his time, methodically choosing his victims", which included 21-year-old Mayci Breaux and 33-year-old Jillian Johnson, who he shot dead. He then turned the gun on himself.

Nine people were taken to hospital with injuries, one of whom remains in intensive care and two have been released from hospital.

Lafayette police chief Jim Craft said Houser's handgun was bought legally in Alabama last year, although police and court records show he had been arrested and ticketed for several other offences in the past, ranging from arson to speeding.

He had also been to the theatre in Lafayette more than once, possibly to see if it was "a soft target", authorities said.

Houser, who had only been in Louisiana for a few weeks, had been staying in a motel room which police found littered with wigs, disguises and an escape plan.

In 2008, his wife Kellie Maddox Houser had been so afraid of his mental state that she hid his guns and his family had him hospitalised.

She obtained a restraining order against him, telling a judge he had manic depression and/or bipolar disorder. She divorced him in March.

Houser also appeared dozens of times on a local television show in Columbus, Georgia, where, according to his journal, he "invited political controversy on every one of (the episodes) and loved every minute of it".

He was a regular guest on other shows, where he called for violent protest against abortion and condemned working women, and he also posted on internet forums praising Adolf Hitler.

He had owned bars in Georgia, including one where he flew a Nazi banner in protest after it was shut down for serving alcohol to children, and he also tried his hand at the real estate business in Alabama.