Fourteen students and one teacher killed in Texas school shooting, governor says

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The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, said 14 students and one teacher were shot and killed at an elementary school in Uvalde, in the south-west of the state, on Tuesday.

Abbott said the gunman, who he named as Salvador Romas, an 18-year-old male from Uvalde, “shot and killed incomprehensibly 14 students and killed the teacher … the shooter, he himself is deceased and it is believed responding officers killed him”.

Abbott said the gunman had a handgun and “may have also had a rifle”.

Authorities in Uvalde were due to address reporters.

Uvalde memorial hospital earlier said it received 13 children via ambulance or bus for treatment after a shooter was reported at Robb elementary school, about 85 miles west of San Antonio. The hospital said two died. Another hospital, University hospital, said a 66-year-old woman was in critical condition.

In Washington, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said the secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, had been briefed.

The spokesperson also said US Customs and Border Protection “immediately responded to the scene to provide support, including medical aid. DHS is actively coordinating with federal, state, and local partners and will continue to provide the department’s full support.”

The Uvalde school district has an enrollment of just under 600.

“Parents are asked to pick up students at the regular dismissal times at the child’s campus,” the district said on Facebook. “There will be no bus transportation. Officers will be on site to escort students to the parents cars. Parents please be patient as lines will be long.”

The shooting comes little more than a week since 10 people were killed in a supermarket in a predominantly African American area of Buffalo, New York, an attack which again raised debate about why the US has failed to pass meaningful such reform.

Ten years ago, 20 children and six adults were killed at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. An attempt to pass gun control legislation after that tragedy, in which Joe Biden was involved as vice-president, fell in the US Senate.

Online on Tuesday, Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action, a group which campaigns for gun control reform, wrote: “Fervently lifting Uvalde up in prayer while refusing to do a goddamned thing to stop gun violence is why this keeps happening, especially in Texas.”