A gunman opened fire at an elementary school in southern Texas, in the United States of America, killing 18 students and three adults, before killing the suspect, in the latest in a series of mass shootings in the United States, officials said.
According to Sky News, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said the suspect, who identified him as Salvador Ramos, 18, was also apparently killed by police officers who went to the scene, and that two of those officers were injured. They were shot, but the governor said their injuries were not serious. Authorities said the suspect acted alone.
In a press conference hours after the shooting, Abbott said 14 schoolchildren were killed along with a teacher. But Texas Senator Roland Gutierrez later told CNN, citing police, that the death toll had since risen to 18 students and three adults.
The incident occurred ten days after another 18-year-old opened fire on a grocery store in a predominantly black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York, killing 10, in what authorities described as a racially motivated hate crime.
Official details of the midday shooting at Robb Elementary School in Yuvaldi, Texas, about 128 km west of San Antonio, were not immediately clear.