BEND, October 16. /Dunyo IA/.  A 16-year-old opened fire at “Silver Rail Elementary” School in the city of Bend, Oregon, killing three children and a teacher before being fatally shot by a bystander, reports Dunyo IA correspondent, citing with “ABC News”.

Incident occurred on Thursday afternoon. According to Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz, the assailant forced his way into the building by shooting at locked doors. The children who were killed were five, eight and 11 years old.

Another child, aged seven, and a 54-year-old teacher were taken to hospital in critical condition. It has not yet been established whether the teenager had any connection to the school. Neither his name nor the identities of the victims have been disclosed.

According to police, the first report concerned an unidentified individual who had fired a long gun at a vehicle. A few minutes later, emergency services began receiving calls reporting that an armed teenager had entered the school.

One of the bystanders pursued the assailant inside the building and shot him dead. Police officers arrived at the scene three minutes after the first report of the shooting, confirmed the suspect’s death and searched the school.

Oregon Governor Tina Kotek thanked the bystander for intervening, saying that the action helped prevent further loss of life. School district representative Steven Cook expressed his condolences to the families of those killed and injured, describing the incident as a tragedy.

Classes at all schools in Bend were cancelled on Friday to give the local community time to come to terms with the incident. According to police, around 450 children attend “Silver Rail Elementary” School, which has a staff of more than 40.

According to the “K-12 School Shooting Database”, 235 school shootings were recorded in the United States last year, while at least 140 have been reported since the beginning of the current year.

Photo by “AP”