At least 19 children and two adults have been killed after a gunman opened fire in a Texas primary school.
The attack took place at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, a small community in the southern part of the state just a couple of days before the end of the school year.
The gunman, identified as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, was shot dead by police.
The mass shooting at Robb Elementary School is the worst in the US in 10 years.
The gunman’s motive is not yet clear.
It seems Ramos was a local man and shot his grandmother before heading to the school with two military-style rifles he had bought to celebrate his birthday.
“That was the first thing he did on his 18th birthday,” State Senator Roland Gutierrez was reported as saying by the Associated Press news agency.
The school district’s police chief, Pete Arredondo, said that the attacker acted alone.
President Joe Biden made an impassioned plea for United States elected representatives to pass ‘common sense’ gun control legislation.
“When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby,” he asked. “When in God’s name are we going to do what we know in our gut needs to be done.”
Biden noted that it had been 10 years since he had been to Sandy Hook where 26 people were killed, 20 of them children.
“I’m sick and tired. We have to act. Don’t tell me we cannot have an impact on this carnage.”
Vice President Kamala Harris has called on the US to have the “courage to take action” and prevent a repeat of the mass shooting at Uvalde.
