Staff Reporter.
Nineteen young children and two adults have died in a shooting at a primary school in south Texas.
The gunman opened fire at Robb Elementary School – which teaches children aged seven to 10 – in the city of Uvalde before he was killed by law enforcement, officials said.
The 18-year-old suspect had a handgun, an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and high-capacity magazines, investigators say.
The teenager is suspected of shooting his grandmother before the rampage.
Local media report he may have been a high school student in the area.
Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Chief of Police Pete Arredondo said the shooting began at 11:32 local time on Tuesday, and that investigators believe the attacker “did act alone during this heinous crime”.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said the shooter, whom he named as Salvador Ramos, abandoned a vehicle before entering the school to “horrifically, incomprehensibly” open fire.
An Uvalde school district police officer, who worked at the school, saw Ramos emerge from the vehicle carrying a rifle and wearing body armour, according to Erick Estrada from the Texas Department of Public Safety, who was speaking to CNN.
The officer “engaged” the suspect but was unable to stop him, Estrada said. Two more officers from Uvalde Police Department also attempted to stop Ramos but were unable to do so, and called for back-up.
Several of the children who died have been identified.
The attack came 10 days after a deadly racist rampage ay a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, that claimed 10 lives in a predominantly Black neighbourhood.
President Joe Biden has called for tougher gun controls and asked why the US is “willing to live with this carnage” after a teenage gunman murdered at least 19 children and two adults in the country’s deadliest school shooting in nearly a decade.
A visibly shaken Biden later urged Americans to resist the powerful gun lobby, which he blamed for blocking enactment of tougher firearms laws. Flags will be flown at half-mast until sunset on Saturday in observance of the tragedy, he said.
“As a nation, we have to ask, ‘When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?” Biden said. “When in God’s name are we going to do what has to be done? Why are we willing to live with this carnage?” He was “sick and tired of it”, he said, adding: “We have to act.”
Source: News Agencies.