A woman has shot and killed three children and three adults at a private Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee.
The 28-year-old attacker, a former student there, was shot dead by police after clashes with police following the rampage at Covenant School.
The suspect, from the southern U.S. city, was carrying two assault rifles and a pistol, police said. They said earlier that she looked older in her teens.
Her identity has not been made public.
The shooting happened at Covenant School.Photo: Metro Nashville Police Department
Officers began receiving reports of the attack at 10.13am (4.13pm UK time) and as police began clearing the ground floor of the school they heard gunfire from the second floor.
Two officers from the five-man team responded and shot and killed the suspect at 10:27 a.m. (4:27 p.m.) — a tragedy that lasted about 14 minutes.
Detectives said they did not know how the woman got into the school, which has pupils up to sixth grade (around the age of 12).
The three children were all students, and they were pronounced dead after being sent to the hospital.
The female attacker died after being “contacted” by officers, police said in a Twitter post.
Biden says Nashville shooting ‘sick’
Biden condemns ‘sick’ attack
U.S. President Joe Biden called Monday’s attack “disgusting” and “heartbreaking.”
He said the U.S. needs to do more to protect schools, and he called on the Senate to pass an assault weapons ban — which would make it a crime to knowingly sell, manufacture, transfer, possess or import many types of semiautomatic and high-capacity weapons. Magazine.
No one else was shot in the attack.
So far this year, there have been 89 school shootings — defined as shots fired at school property — in the United States.
There were 303 such incidents in 2022, the most for a year in the K-12 school shooting database going back to 1970.
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US mass shootings
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Covenant School children hold hands as they are taken to another area to be reunited with their parents
Other students held hands as they left the school surrounded by police cars and walked to safety, heading to a nearby church where they were reunited with their parents.
Police officers with rifles, heavy vests and helmets could be seen walking across the school parking lot and around the building.
Helicopter footage also showed officers looking around in a patch of woods between the campus and a nearby road.
Police said no officers were at the school when the shooting occurred because it is a church-run school.
Nashville Mayor John Cooper thanked emergency services for their response to the attack.
He tweeted: “On a tragic morning, Nashville joins the horribly long list of communities experiencing a school shooting.
“My heart goes out to the families of the victims. Our entire city stands with you.”
“An unimaginable tragedy”
Democratic state representative Bob Freeman, whose district includes Covenant School, called the shooting an “unimaginable tragedy.”
“I live near Covenant and pass by it a lot. I have friends who go to church and school there,” Mr Freeman said.
“I’ve been to church in the past too. It breaks my heart to see this.”
Covenant School has about 200 students in preschool through sixth grade, according to the school website, and was founded in 2001 as a ministry of Covenant Presbyterian Church.