A shooting at a primary school in south Texas killed 19 young children and two adults.
The 18-year-old gunman opened fire at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde before being killed by police, according to officials.
The suspect was armed with a handgun, an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, and high-capacity magazines, according to investigators.
According to the governor, the suspect was armed with a handgun and possibly a rifle during the attack.
The public has been asked to stay away from the crime scene while police investigate.
Shootings in primary schools, where students range in age from five to eleven, are still uncommon. The Tuesday attack comes amid a nationwide increase in gun violence.
Governor Abbott identified the attacker as Salvador Ramos, a local teenager who “shot and killed, horrifically, incomprehensibly, 14 students and killed a teacher”.
“He himself is deceased, and it is believed that responding officers killed him,” he added.
“It is believed that two responding officers were struck by rounds, but have no serious injuries.”
According to local US media, the gunman may have also shot his grandmother at the start of the shooting spree. According to CBS, the BBC’s American partner, he could have been a local high school student.
Investigators believe the attacker “acted alone during this heinous crime,” according to Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Chief of Police Pete Arredondo.
Nineteen children and two teachers have been killed after a gunman opened fire at a primary school in Texas, officials have confirmed.
The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, located about 85 miles (135 kilometers) west of San Antonio, told the BBC that students had been evacuated. The school has just under 500 students enrolled.
Students from the school were being treated by emergency services, according to local hospitals.
According to University Health hospital officials, a 66-year-old woman and a 10-year-old girl are being treated at a hospital in San Antonio and are both in critical condition.
According to the Uvalde Memorial Hospital’s Facebook page, 13 children were transported to the hospital “via ambulances or buses.”
According to the earlier Facebook post, two “individuals” died when they arrived at the hospital. They will now hold a “emergency blood drive” on Wednesday.
In a text message, Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin told ABC News, “this is a very bad situation.”
According to CBS, the FBI is assisting with the investigation.
US President Joe Biden has been briefed on the attack, according to White House officials, and is scheduled to speak later Tuesday.
Thursday was the last day of school for students in the school district. Seniors at the local high school in Uvalde, a town of about 16,000 people, will graduate on Friday.
According to EdWeek, an education trade publication, school shootings have become a recurring emergency in the United States, with 26 recorded last year.
Active shooter lockdown drills are a standard part of the school curriculum, from elementary to secondary school.
Americans were shocked by the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. Twenty of the 26 victims in that attack, carried out by a 20-year-old, were children aged five to six.
On the floor of the United States Senate in Washington, DC on Tuesday, Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Murphy accused his colleagues of laziness and begged them to pass gun control legislation.
“What exactly are we doing? What brings you here? If not to solve an existential problem like this? This is not unavoidable “He stated.
“These kids weren’t unlucky. This only happens in this country. Nowhere else do kids go to school and think they might be shot that day.”
The National Rifle Association, a powerful lobbying organization that opposes gun control regulations, will hold its annual conference in Houston on Friday.
According to a 2020 report from the US Government Accountability Office, approximately two-thirds of all school shootings occur at the high school level, with shootings in elementary schools being most commonly accidental.
According to data released last month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), guns will overtake car crashes as the leading cause of death for US children and teenagers in 2020.
According to an FBI report released on Monday, “active shooter” rampage attacks have more than doubled since the coronavirus first appeared in 2020.
