At least 21 people have been killed in a school shooting in Texas, USA.
The 18-year-old gunman – who was killed by law enforcement – reportedly hinted on social media of an upcoming attack, before crashing his car outside the Robb Elementary School, in the city of Uvalde, and going inside armed and wearing body armour, Erick Estrada of the Texas Department of Public Safety said.
The teenager is suspected of killing his grandmother at the start of the rampage.
Advert
At the school, he killed at least 19 children and two adults.
It was the deadliest shooting at a US grade school since a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, almost a decade ago – and federal law enforcement officials said the death toll is expected to rise.
The attack came just 10 days after a gunman in body armour killed 10 shoppers and workers at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, in what authorities said was a racist attack.
Advert
The massacre of young children was another gruesome moment for a country scarred by an almost ceaseless string of mass killings at churches, schools and stores.
Speaking from the White House yesterday evening, 24 May, President Joe Biden said: "When in God's name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?
"I am sick and tired. We have to act."
Advert
Uvalde is home to about 16,000 people and is roughly 75 miles (120 kilometres) from the border with Mexico. Robb Elementary is in a mostly residential neighbourhood of modest homes.
The tragedy in Uvalde is the deadliest school shooting in Texas history, and it added to a grim tally of mass shootings in the state that have been among the deadliest in the US over the past five years.
In 2018, a gunman fatally shot 10 people at Santa Fe High School in the Houston area. A year before that, a gunman at a Texas church killed more than two dozen people during a Sunday service in the small town of Sutherland Springs.
In 2019, another gunman at a Walmart in El Paso killed 23 people in a racist attack.
Advert
If you have experienced a bereavement and would like to speak with someone in confidence contact Cruse Bereavement Care via their national helpline on 0808 808 1677
Jake Massey