The suspect, an 18-year-old man, killed 14 children and a teacher “in a heinous and senseless manner,” Texas Governor Greg Abbott said at a news conference.
The assailant was also killed, it added, noting that “responding officers are believed to have killed him.”
The White House said that President Joe Biden was briefed on the issue.
“His prayers are with the families affected by this terrible event and he will speak tonight when he returns” from his trip to Asia, presidential spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said.
The motives for the attack are unknown at this time.
Earlier, Uvalde Memorial Hospital had said on Facebook that it had treated “13 children,” adding that two people “had died” by the time they arrived, without specifying their ages.
A 66-year-old woman is also in “critical condition,” announced another hospital, University Health, located in the nearby city of San Antonio, Texas, which said it had received “two patients,” one adult and one child.
– Near the border with Mexico –
The shooting occurred at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, a town between San Antonio and the Mexican border. More than 500 children were enrolled at the school during the 2020-2021 school year, according to state data.
Local police had previously said a suspect had been taken into custody following the shooting, which began around noon.
The school, which is attended by students in grades two through four, asked parents not to pick up their children until all children had been accounted for.
“Please do not pick up students at this time. Students must be accounted for before they are released to your charge. They will be notified to pick up students once they are all accounted for,” he noted on his website.
Ted Cruz, a US senator from Texas, tweeted that he and his wife were praying for the children and families “in the horrific Uvalde shooting.”
“Thank you to the heroic law enforcement and first responders for acting so quickly,” the Republican lawmaker added.
– Wave of armed violence –
The deadly violence at this Texas school follows other mass shootings in the United States this month.
On May 14, an 18-year-old man shot and killed 10 people at a Buffalo, New York grocery store. Wearing a heavy bulletproof vest and carrying an AR-15 rifle, the self-proclaimed white supremacist reportedly live-streamed his attack.
He reportedly planned it for months, targeting the store because of the large African-American population that surrounds it.
The next day, a man blocked the door of a church in Laguna Woods, California and opened fire on his Taiwanese-American congregation, killing one person and wounding five.
The shooter, who was working as a security guard in Las Vegas, targeted people out of “politically motivated hate… (and) was upset about political tensions between China and Taiwan,” according to Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes.
Despite recurring mass shootings and a national wave of gun violence, multiple initiatives to reform gun regulations have failed in the US Congress, leaving states and local councils to enact their own restrictions.
The United States recorded 19,350 homicides with firearms in 2020, almost 35% more than in 2019, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the main US public health agency.
The assailant “horribly and incomprehensibly shot and killed 14 students and killed a teacher,” Abbott told a news conference.
He specified that the attacker, identified as local teenager Salvador Ramos, had also “passed away,” adding that “responding officers are believed to have killed him.”
