(PTI): Five people have been shot dead in California in what appears to be another sign of a social crisis on the back of falling US economy. Two others, a child and an adult, suffering from bad wounds, were transferred to a nearby clinic.

According to the police the shooting spree is thought to be part of a murder-suicide, with the gunman believed to be among the dead, CNN reported. The Santa Clara home shooting in California came at a time, when the US society is already marred by an emerging social unrest mainly because of the credit crunch.

Earlier on the day, another shooting incident killed eight people at a nursing center in North Carolina.

“If people can’t go down to the bank to withdraw their savings, or get cash from an ATM, there may be serious ‘civil unrest’,” said Amy Goodman last October citing and Army Times piece.

Signs of an unfolding social unrest began to appear in July last year when Carlene Balderrama, a 53-year-old wife and mother of Taunton, Mass., shot herself after hearing that her foreclosed home was scheduled to be sold at auction.

The incident was followed by an attempted suicide by a ninety-year-old Ohio woman in October, 2008.

The inherent economic-driven social unrest is gradually spilling over other sections of the US society.

On March 10 this year, a gunman killed 10 people and himself in an hour-long rampage in Alabama that left his mother, grandmother and other relatives dead.

In another incident in the current month, on March 15 and during a vicious shooting case that happened in Miami, the gunman shot four people to death and committed suicide.

The United States top the world with 250 million firearms owned privately. Loose gun control has made the country a hotbed for gun-related crimes.