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Three children and three adults dead in shooting at Christian elementary school in Nashville

Officers shot and killed an armed individual who wounded multiple people in a shooting at a Christian elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday, according to police.

“The shooter was engaged by MNPD and is dead,” the Metro Nashville Police Department said in a statement of the incident at Covenant Presbyterian School.

An MNPD spokesperson said in a media briefing on Monday that the alleged shooter is believed to be a teenaged girl, though her identity has not been verified.

“We know that she was armed with at least two assault-type rifles and a handgun,” the spokesperson said.

In addition to the shooter, three adults and three children are dead, according to police.

The official added that officers shot the girl about 15 minutes after the department received a call about an active shooter at 11.13am.

“They immediately went to the gunfire,” the spokesperson said.

One officer was injured in the hand by broken glass, a fire department official said at the media briefing.

Three “pediatric patients were transported to Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, all having suffered gunshot wounds,” Vanderbilt University Medical Center spokesperson John Howser told NBC News. “All three were pronounced dead after arrival.”

The Nashville office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is deploying resources to assist police with their response to the shooting, Fox News reports.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is also sending agents to the scene.

Ambulances and armoured police vans were seen heading towards the school.

Armed SWAT officers were also seen patrolling woods near the school.

The TBI said on Twitter on Monday “there is no current threat to public safety.”

The Covenant School is a private religious school located on the campus of Nashville’s Covenent Presbyterian Church, and is next door to a Nashville Fire Department station, according to USA Today.

The school, founded in 2001, is located in the wealthy Green Hill neighbourhood, and has 33 teachers and roughly 200 students, according to the Associated Press.

The school’s motto is “Shepherding Hearts, Empowering Minds, Celebrating Childhood.”

Children were seen being led away from the school in a line by police.

A family reunification center is open at Woodmont Baptist Church on 2100 Woodmont Boulevard. Parents at the scene of the shooting were seen running trying to find their children with tears in their eyes, according to WSMV.

In 2022, the school ran an active shooter training programme, according to WTVF.

Shannon Watts of gun safety advocacy group Moms Demand Action said Tennessee governor Bill Lee is responsible for increasing the risk of gun violence in the state, after signing a 2021 bill allowing for permitless carry.

“Tennessee [Governor Bill Lee] hasn’t had time yet to tweet his thoughts and prayers for Covenant School, but when he does, remind him that this is exactly why police and citizens opposed the permitless carry bill he signed into law at a gun maker’s factory in 2021,” she wrote on Twitter.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated with new information.