Washington, UNITED STATES (AFP) — President Joe Biden will speak this evening on the latest school shooting in the United States after 14 students and a teacher were killed in Texas, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday.

“His prayers are with the families impacted by this awful event, and he will speak this evening when he arrives back at the White House,” she wrote on Twitter as Biden flew back from a visit to South Korea and Japan.

Biden also ordered that the US flag at the White House be flown at half-staff, along with flags at federal government and military buildings and vessels, “as a mark of respect for the victims of the senseless acts of violence,” a White House statement said.

The attack by an 18-year-old gunman, who was reportedly killed by police at the scene, in Uvalde, Texas — a small community about an hour from the Mexican border — is the latest in a spree of deadly shootings in America.

It was the deadliest such incident since 14 high school students and three adult staff were killed in Parkland, Florida in 2018 — and the worst at an elementary school since the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting in Connecticut, in which 20 children and six staff were killed.

© Agence France-Presse