In a horrific mass shooting in the United States, Texas, an 18-year-old gunman, identified as Salvador Ramos, killed 18 children and three adults, including a teacher, at Robb Elementary School on Tuesday.
According to the reports, the killings took place at noon at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, a small community about an hour from the Mexican border. More than 500 students, mostly Hispanic and economically disadvantaged, study at the school from second through fourth grade.
The killings came on the day when students were preparing to start summer break this week. The teacher killed has been named in US media as Eva Mireles, who has a daughter in college.
The gunman is identified as an 18-year-old man who had attended a nearby high school. The shooter reportedly abandoned his vehicle and entered the school with a handgun and may also have had a rifle. The teenager is suspected of shooting his own grandmother before going on a killing spree at the school.
The gunman was shot dead by the police officers, the officials said, adding two more adults have also been killed in the attack.
The CCTV footage showed that small groups of children were being rescued through parked cars and yellow buses, even some holding hands as police escorted them from the school.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden addressed the nation following the deadly attacks on schools. He has ordered US flags on federal grounds to be flown at half-staff until sunset on Saturday to honour the victims of these “senseless acts of violence.”
The latest attack on a Texas school is one of the deadliest attacks since the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were killed. The attacks also come just a week after another similar gun attack at a supermarket in New York.
An 18-year-old identified as Payton Gendron had opened fire at a busy supermarket while live-streaming the attack on the streaming platform Twitch. The suspect entered the supermarket Tops on a busy afternoon with a rifle. He was wearing armour and had written the N-word on his rifle. More than ten people had lost their lives in the Buffalo supermarket shootout.