Texas Shootings Tributes, Grief And Anger As Us Absorbs Another School Massacre

The attack on Robb elementary school in Uvalde, 85 miles west of San Antonio, was the deadliest gun rampage in an American school in almost a decade.

- Ed Pilkington, Jon Henley

America is absorbing the shock of another bloody mass shooting, a day after an 18-year-old man wearing body armour and carrying assault rifles entered an elementary school in Texas and shot dead at least 19 children and two adults.

The attack on Robb elementary school in Uvalde, 85 miles west of San Antonio, was the deadliest gun rampage in an American school in almost a decade. It prompted passionate calls for tougher gun controls led by Joe Biden but matched by equally stringent demands for more armed guards in schools from the gun lobby and Republicans.

Manny Renfro, the grandfather of Uziyah Garcia, an eight-year-old boy who was among the dead, described him as "the sweetest little boy that I've ever known".

The shooting began at 11.32am on Tuesday when the shooter, named locally as Salvador Ramos - who is believed to have posted photographs of what he called "my guns" on Instagram four days earlier - opened fire in a classroom of pupils aged nine or 10. He carried an assault-style weapon and wore a tactical vest in which he is believed to have held large quantities of ammunition.

Chris Olivarez, of the Texas department of public safety, gave CNN chilling details of what happened. He said Ramos barricaded himself into a classroom where he opened fire on children and two teachers. All the victims were reported to be from the same classroom, Olivarez said. A Swat team eventually broke into the room and shot the gunman dead.

More than 200 rounds of ammunition were discovered with the shooter's body, in 30-round magazines. It emerged yesterday that the gunman had obtained his weapons legally over three days this month, shortly after his 18th birthday. He bought two semi-automatic AR-15 style rifles at a federally registered dealership on 17 and 20 May, and 375 rounds of ammunition on 18 May.