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{21 KILLED IN TEXAS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SHOOTING}
{PAY HIKE IN THE OFFING FOR HK WORKERS}
{251 NEW CASES SURFACED AS CLUSTERS CONTINUE TO BURGEON}
{O/C} {Good evening}
We begin our coverage in Texas. That's where a deadly shooting rampage erupted in an elementary school on Tuesday when the 18-year-old intruder, Salvador Ramos, who was shot and killed by officers at the scene, pulled out his weapons and opened fire on students from classroom to classroom.
21 people were among the slain, including 19 children.
Authorities termed this blatant attack the second deadliest school shooting since the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012.
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What could have been a normal day at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde County in Texas morphed into a vortex of grief and despair after a gunman shot at students at around 11:32 a.m. local time.
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18-year-old Salvador Ramos, who had attended a nearby high school, brought with him numerous weapons as he perpetrated the attack in the school comprised of mostly Latino students.
Having shot his grandmother before crashing and abandoning his vehicle outside the school building, he exchanged gunfire with two police officers who were both shot.
At least one teacher was killed along with 19 children as well as the gunman.
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GREG ABBOTT, Texas Governor: There are families who are in mourning right now. And the state of Texas is in mourning with them for the reality that these parents are not going to be able to pick up their children. He shot and killed horrifically and incomprehensively.
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The injured were rushed to Uvalde Memorial Hospital.
Officials expressed condolences.
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HAL HARRELL, Uvalde CISD Superintendent: My heart is broken today. We're a small community and we're going to need your prayers to get us through this.
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Anxious parents were avid for news.
The attack was unleashed just tens days after a fearsome racist shooting spree at a Buffalo supermarket and a church in California.
Students were enjoying a battery of themed days in the run-up to their summer break.
Knowing America has to stop terrorists from playing fast and loose with American lives, the President declared it was high time the nation grasped the nettle.
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JOE BIDEN, U.S. President: Another massacre. 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 will we do what we all know in our gut needs to be done? Why are we willing to live with this carnage? Why do we keep letting this happen?"
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Trawling through the scene and the Internet, investigators learned that Ramos had hinted at a shooting given photos of his two guns on Instagram.
Coupled with the unbearable anguish of parents, this lamentable tragedy adds to Texas' gloom and doom given it's been the site of some of the most nefarious mass shootings in America over the years.
It has also forced the issue of gun control that has run into the sand thanks to encumbrances mostly from rebellious Republicans and outside organisations.
U.S. President Joe Biden has also requested that flags at all government buildings be lowered to half-staff to commemorate the lives tragically lost.
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