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A gunman opened fire on school children attending a church service in Minneapolis, killing two pupils and wounding 17 children and adults, police said, in the latest violent tragedy to jolt the United States.

City police chief Brian O’Hara told a media briefing that the shooter sprayed bullets into the Annunciation Church as dozens of students were at a Mass marking their first week back to school.

The shooting is now being investigated as an act of terrorism as well as an anti-Catholic hate crime, said FBI Director Kash Patel.

“The FBI is investigating this shooting as an act of domestic terrorism and hate crime targeting Catholics,” Patel said on X, adding that the shooter has been identified as “Robin Westman, a male born as Robert Westman”.

The church sits next to an affiliated Catholic school in southern Minneapolis, the largest city in the Midwestern state of Minnesota.

“Two young children, ages 8 and 10, were killed where they sat in the pews,” O’Hara said, adding that 17 people were injured, including 14 children.

Two were in critical condition, he said.

The gunman fired a rifle, shotgun and pistol before he took his own life in the parking lot, according to the police chief.

Bystanders and media look on near the scene of a shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Photo / Tom Baker, AFP 

He said the shooter was in his early 20s, did not have an extensive criminal history and was believed to have acted alone.

Investigators were probing “information left behind” to try and determine a possible motive, O’Hara said.

Two adults and nine children, aged 6 to 14, were being treated at the Hennepin County Medical Centre, doctors told reporters, with at least four people requiring immediate surgery.

A parent hugs her son during an active shooter situation at the Annunciation Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Photo / Getty Images

“Minnesota is heartbroken,” Governor Tim Walz wrote on X.

“From the officers responding, to the clergy and teachers providing comfort, to the hospital staff saving lives, we will get through this together,” he said, adding: “Hug your kids close.”

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey speaks to the media following a mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Photo / Getty Images 

Video footage from outside a police cordon showed panicked parents hurrying away with their young children dressed in a school uniform of green polo shirts. 

Wednesday’s tragedy comes just over two months after a top Democratic lawmaker and her husband were killed outside Minneapolis, prompting a major manhunt across the state. 

A country of school shootings 

O’Hara called the church attack a “deliberate act of violence against innocent children and other people worshipping”. 

“The sheer cruelty and cowardice of firing into a church full of children is absolutely incomprehensible,” he said. 

The mass shooting is the latest in a long line of deadly school attacks in the United States, where guns outnumber people and attempts to restrict access to firearms face perennial political deadlock. 

This year, there have been at least 287 mass shootings – defined as a shooting involving at least four victims, dead or wounded – across the country, according to the Gun Violence Archive. 

A parent runs toward the school during an active shooter situation at the Annunciation Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Photo / Getty Images 

At least 16,700 people were killed in US firearms violence last year, not including suicides. 

Among the many shocking school shootings was a rampage in 2022 when an 18-year-old gunman stormed a Uvalde, Texas elementary school and opened fire, killing 19 students and two teachers. 

‘Don’t just say... thoughts and prayers’ 

“Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now. These kids were literally praying. It was the first week of school. They were in a church. These are kids that should be learning with their friends,” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey told reporters. 

“They should be playing on the playground. They should be able to go to school or church in peace without the fear or risk of violence.” 

President Donald Trump said he had been briefed on the “tragic shooting” and that the FBI was responding. 

“The White House will continue to monitor this terrible situation. Please join me in praying for everyone involved!” he wrote on his Truth Social platform. 

Police and first responders work at the scene of a shooting near Annunciation Church and Catholic School in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Photo, Tom Baker / AFP 

A White House official later said Trump had quickly spoken with Walz, something he pointedly did not do after the assassination of a Minnesota lawmaker in June. 

Walz was the Democratic vice-presidential nominee in last year’s election. 

Wednesday’s shooting also comes after a wave of false reports of active shooters that have provoked panic at several US college campuses as students return from summer break. 

– Agence France-Presse