US mayor makes plea for calm after police shoot teenager dead

A US mayor is pressing for calm in his St Louis suburb after a white police officer fatally shot a black 18-year-old who police say pointed a handgun at the officer.

St Louis County police identified the young man killed during the Berkeley encounter as Antonio Martin.

County Police chief Jon Belmar said the officer was questioning the 18-year-old and another man about a theft at a convenience store when the young man pulled a handgun.

Mr Belmar said the officer fired three shots, one striking the 18-year-old.

Berkeley is near Ferguson, where the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by a white police officer sparked sometimes violent demonstrations.

Berkeley mayor Theodore Hoskins said the Martin and Brown cases are different, partly because there was no video of the fatal encounter in Ferguson.