US school shooting kills three kids, three adults

At least three children and three adults have been killed in a shooting at a private Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee, before US police shot dead the shooter, who appeared to be a teenage girl.

Police began receiving calls of a shooter at The Covenant School at 10.13am on Monday.

Officers could hear gunfire coming from the school’s second floor, Don Aaron, a spokesman for Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, told reporters.

The shooter had at least two semi-automatic rifles and a handgun, Aaron said.

“We do not know who she is at this juncture,” Aaron said.

Three students were pronounced dead after arriving at Monroe Carell Jr Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt with gunshot wounds, hospital spokesman John Howser said in a statement.

Three adult staff members were killed by the shooter, police said.

Students’ parents were told to gather at a nearby church.

The Covenant School, founded in 2001, is a ministry of Covenant Presbyterian Church in the Green Hills neighborhood of Nashville with about 200 students, according to the school’s website.

The school serves pre-school through 6th graders and held an active shooter training program in 2022, WTVF-TV reported.