Four people, including three children and a teacher, have been killed in a shooting at Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, in the US state of Oregon.
Police said the incident began at around 1 p.m. after they received a report from a person who said shots had been fired at their vehicle.
Emergency calls soon followed, reporting that a suspect, identified by police as a 16-year-old boy, had entered the school.
According to police, a bystander witnessed the shooting unfold, pursued the attacker into the school and shot him dead.
Officers arrived at the scene three minutes after receiving the emergency calls. They confirmed that the suspect had been killed before proceeding to search the school.
The victims were three children aged five, eight and 11, as well as a teacher. A seven-year-old child and a 54-year-old teacher were also taken to a local hospital with critical injuries.
Authorities have not provided further details about the circumstances that led to the shooting.
Schools across Bend were closed on Friday as the community grappled with the tragedy.
Officials said the closure was intended to give residents time to grieve and begin the healing process following the deadly attack.
The shooting adds to concerns over school safety in the United States, where gun violence at educational institutions continues to raise questions about protecting learners and teachers.
Investigations into the incident are expected to establish what led the teenage suspect to attack the school and the circumstances surrounding the bystander’s intervention.
Bend is located in central Oregon, about 150 miles southeast of Portland.
Last year there were 235 shooting incidents at K-12 schools in the U.S., according to data from the K-12 School Shooting Database.
So far this year, there have been at least 149, including the one in Bend, Oregon.
While still higher than pre-pandemic levels, school shooting incidents appear to be decreasing from a peak in 2023.
