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

An Uvalde police spokesperson did not confirm the numbers, identities or ages of the dead as given by the governor.

The shooting came a little more than a week after 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 consistently failed to pass meaningful gun control 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.

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

Earlier in the day, as news of the shooting spread, Uvalde memorial hospital said it received 13 children via ambulance or bus after the shooting in the city 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.

The spokesperson said families were being notified and assisted. He did not take questions.

Uvalde is about 75 miles from the border with Mexico and home to about 16,000 people. The school district has an enrollment of just under 600. Robb Elementary is in a mostly residential neighborhood of modest homes.