21 killed in Texas school shooting

At least 19 students and two adults were killed at an elementary school in the US state of Texas when an 18-year-old gunman opened fire, authorities said Tuesday.

"I can't imagine what it would mean to send your child off to school in the morning and not have them return. It's devastating," Roland Gutierrez, a member of the Texas state Senate, told CNN.

The shooting happened at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, about 83 miles (133 kilometers) west of San Antonio.

“He shot and killed horrifically, incomprehensibly 14 students and killed a teacher,” said Texas Governor Greg Abbott at an earlier news conference.

“It is believed that he abandoned his vehicle and entered into the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde with a handgun and he may have also had a rifle,” said Abbott.

The shooter, identified as Salvador Romas, 18, from Uvalde, is believed to have been shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent in an exchange of gunfire. Before the carnage at the school, the shooter wounded his grandmother.

“Mr. Romas the shooter … he himself is deceased,” said Abbott.

"Our hearts keep getting broken. Every time a tragedy like this happens, our hearts break and our broken hearts are nothing compared to the broken hearts of those families," said Vice President Kamala Harris in Washington, D.C.

Following the shooting, President Joe Biden ordered that the US flag be flown at half-staff at the White House and on all public buildings, military posts, and naval stations.

"I had hoped, when I became president, I would not have to do this, again. Another massacre," he said late Tuesday in an emotional address at the White House after returning from a trip to Asia.

“An elementary school. Beautiful, innocent, second, third, fourth graders,” he lamented.

Biden added, calling for action to prevent more carnage: “As a nation we have to ask, when in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby? When in God’s name are we going to do what has to be done?”