Woman's death linked to sniper attacks

US police say the death of a woman outside a shop in suburban Washington DC has "tremendous similarities" to eight other fatal attacks.

The sniper who has been blamed for eight deaths in the last 12 days.

Roads were closed swiftly in the area, about 10 miles west of the US capital, causing huge traffic jams as officers hunted for the gunman.

“There are tremendous similarities in this shooting with the other shootings,” Montgomery County, Maryland, Executive Doug Duncan said today.

“We had our task force members out there right away. They shut down the roads and an awful lot of other things. So it is very similar and we are waiting for the evidence from the scene to confirm that it is related.”

The victim’s identity was not released.