Three children and one teacher were shot dead at an elementary school Thursday in the northwestern US state of Oregon, police said, adding that the assailant was a 16-year-old who was killed by an armed bystander.

Another child and a teacher were being treated for critical injuries after the shooting at Silver Rail Elementary school in Bend, a city of about 100,000 people.

Mike Krantz, police chief of Bend, told journalists that the department first learned of an active shooter after a call from a person who reported being shot at multiple times by a person carrying a long gun.

Dozens of emergency calls then reported that a shooter had entered the school and all law enforcement in the area were called to the scene, Krantz said.

Officers arrived at 1:02 pm local time (2002 GMT) within minutes of the calls, said the police chief.

"Moments later, an officer reported that the suspect had been shot by a community member who had seen the suspect enter the school and pursued him into the school and engaged him," Krantz continued.

"Our officers entered the building and confirmed the suspect was dead."

Officers performed emergency aid on the victims. The three children who died on the scene were aged five, eight and 11, the police chief said.

One teacher was also pronounced dead.

Krantz said one seven-year-old and one 54-year-old teacher with critical injuries were transported by medics to a local hospital.

He added that the shooter was a resident of Bend.

Krantz stressed that the investigation was in its early stages, but told the press conference it appeared "the shooter had forced their way into the school by shooting at locked doors."

Between 400 and 450 children attend Silver Rail Elementary, where more than 40 staff work, a police spokesperson had said earlier.

After a lockdown, Bend-La Pine School District said law enforcement was escorting students in buses to a separate location, where families could reunite with their children.

The district's superintendent, Steve Cook, tearfully called the day's events "an unthinkable tragedy."

"We are heartbroken. We are horrified. This is the kind of thing you hear about in other places, and pray that it never happens here," he told reporters.

Parents were anxiously waiting at the site near a church, where parent Drew Sharp told CBS News: "I have faith that he's okay and that he'll be alright."

Sharp said his son was a fifth grader, the highest grade in the school, and that children were disembarking from the bus youngest to oldest.

"Which makes sense," Sharp said, but "it's just more time waiting."

Friday classes at schools across the district along with activities and athletic events were canceled, Bend-La Pine said in a statement.

The elementary school is approximately 170 miles (270 kilometers) southeast of the city Portland. It serves primary-age students in kindergarten through fifth grade.

The United States, where firearms are readily available, is a frequent scene of gun violence, with thousands of people killed every year. It has the highest rate of gun-related deaths among all developed nations.

The deadliest school shooting in US history took place 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.

There have been more than 360 mass shootings in the US so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as four or more people shot.

"Our hearts are with the terrified children and the families anxiously waiting to hear that their loved ones are safe," GIFFORDS, a gun safety organization, said on X.

"We cannot keep accepting this as a fact of life."

Thursday's shooting was followed by a painfully familiar chorus of calls for action on gun control, pleas that have resulted in little meaningful change.

In the face of decades of massacres akin to Thursday's, the powerful US pro-gun lobby has given millions of dollars to primarily conservative politicians in a successful bid to keep gun laws loose.

"They're killing our babies. Shredding our kids with lead. Forcing us to live in fear," said Janelle Bynum, an Oregon congresswoman, in a statement.

"This continues to happen," she said later, speaking on CNN.

"And it seems as if the adults don't care."

Source: AFP

--Agencies