Gunman dead and at least two hospitalised after shooting at Oregon elementary school
A shooting took place Thursday at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, in the north-western United States. Police report multiple victims and say the shooter is dead; at least two people were taken to hospital.
A shooting took place Thursday at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, in the north-western US state of Oregon. The school teaches children from kindergarten through fifth grade. Police said there are multiple victims and that the shooter is dead. School shootings are a recurring problem in the United States, where firearms are readily available.
What police have said
Sheila Miller, a spokesperson for the Bend Police Department, told a press conference that officers were alerted to a critical scene at 1:00 pm local time and arrived roughly two minutes later. Seconds after that, a radio message reported that the suspect was down.
Police cannot yet confirm who shot the suspect. Miller said it may have been a bystander. Medics took at least two people to a local hospital, and their condition is not known.
Evacuation of students
The Bend-La Pine School District said on social media that the school was under lockdown. It later said law enforcement was escorting students on buses to a separate location, where families could be reunited with their children. The school lies more than 100 miles (160 kilometres) south-east of Portland.
Background
The United States has the highest rate of gun-related deaths among developed nations, with thousands of people killed every year. According to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more people are shot, there have been more than 360 such shootings in the country this year. The deadliest school shooting in US history occurred at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007, when South Korean student Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people and wounded 17 others before taking his own life.
