White House calls early reports on Kansas shooting 'disturbing'

Wednesday's shooting killed one Indian national; another was injured while trying to intervene

The White House said today that the early reports coming from Kansas, where an Indian engineer was shot dead and another injured in an apparent hate crime, were "disturbing".

The White House also condemned the alleged hate crimes against the Jewish community in the US.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters at his daily news conference that "early reports coming from Kansas are equally disturbing".

Srinivas Kuchibhotla, 32, was killed and Alok Madasani, of the same age, was injured in the shooting by 51-year-old US navy veteran Adam Purinton who screamed racial slurs and told them "get out of my country".

A 24-year-old American named Ian Grillot tried to intervene and received injuries in the firing in Austins Bar and Grill in Olathe, Kansas.

Spicer, during his briefing, also condemned the alleged hate crimes against the Jewish community and asserted that there is no space for violence based on religion and ethnicity.

His remarks came after vandals broke and overturned more than 500 gravestones at a Jewish cemetery in Philadelphia, the latest in a spate of recent bomb threats and attacks against sites for Jews across the United States.