Two children, aged eight and 10, have been killed in a shooting during mass at a school in Minneapolis.

An attacker opened fire with a rifle through the windows of a church at Annunciation Catholic School and struck a group of children as they sat in pews on Wednesday morning.

The FBI has confirmed the killer has been identified as Robin Westman, a male born as Robert Westman, and is investigating the shooting as an “act of domestic terrorism” and a “hate crime targeting Catholics”.

As it happened: FBI says attack investigated as ‘terrorism’

The city’s police chief Brian O’Hara said the attacker – armed with a rifle, shotgun, and pistol – approached the side of the church and fired dozens of rounds as mass was celebrated during the first week of term.

He added that 17 other people were injured, including 14 children, two of whom were in a critical condition.

Police believe the suspect, thought to be in his early 20s and acting alone, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Mr O’Hara called the attack in Minnesota 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 also said a wooden plank had been used to barricade some side doors.

Authorities found a smoke bomb but no explosives at the scene, Mr O’Hara said.

Three adults in 80s among those injured

Hennepin Healthcare, the main trauma hospital in Minneapolis, received 11 patients, including nine children – aged six to 14 – and two adults, emergency medicine chair Dr Thomas Wyatt said.

He said four of the patients were taken to operating rooms.

Children’s Minnesota, a paediatric trauma hospital, said in a statement that five children were admitted.

At a later news conference, Mr O’Hara said three adults in their 80s are among those injured in the attack.

He added that Westman had scheduled a manifesto to be released on YouTube, which “appeared to show him at the scene and included some disturbing writings”.

The video has since been taken down with the assistance of the FBI.

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‘So much’ gunfire, witness says

Bill Bienemann, a witness to the shooting, told Sky News it went on “for several minutes – a long time for live gunfire”.

“I know what gunfire sounds like, and I was shocked,” he added. “I said there’s no way that could be gunfire, there was so much of it.

“It seemed like a rifle, it certainly didn’t sound like a handgun, so he must have reloaded several times.”

The pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade school had an all-school mass scheduled at 8.15am local time on Wednesday morning (2.15pm UK time), according to its website.

Monday was the first day of the school semester.

Mayor calls shooting ‘unspeakable act’

At the first news conference, Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey said the shooting was an “unspeakable act”.

“Children are dead,” he said. “There are families that have a deceased child. You cannot put into words the gravity, the tragedy, or the absolute pain of this situation.”

Speaking later, and joined by Governor Tim Walz, Mr Frey said that the “Minneapolis family” has stepped up in “thousands of different ways” after the shooting.

“The way that they acted during the severe threat and danger was nothing short of heroic,” he says.

“This is a tragic and horrible event that should never occur.”

He added: “Anybody who is using this as an opportunity to villainise our trans community or any other community out there has lost their sense of common humanity.”

Mr Walz said: “We often come to these and say these are unspeakable tragedies or there are no words for this, there shouldn’t be words for these types of incidents because they shouldn’t happen.”

The school’s headteacher Matt DeBoer added: “To any of our students and families and staff watching right now, I love you. You’re so brave, and I’m so sorry this happened.”

Senator: Girl ‘had to watch several of her friends get shot’

Speaking to MSNBC, Democratic senator Amy Klobuchar said she had called one of her longtime employees who had three children in the school during the shooting.

The senator described the call with the mother as “one of the most upsetting things I’ve ever heard”.

“These kids are doing an all-school mass and had to watch several of her friends get shot – one in the back, one in the neck,” Ms Klobuchar added.

“And they all got down under the pews and she – her daughter, of course, was not shot – but her daughter ended up being the one to tell one of the dads of one of the other kids that his daughter had been shot.”

Responding to the reports, US President Donald Trump said on Truth Social: “I have been fully briefed on the tragic shooting in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

“The FBI quickly responded and they are on the scene. The White House will continue to monitor this terrible situation.”

The world’s most valuable company, and first to be valued at $4trn (£2.9trn), beat market expectations in keenly anticipated financial results.

Microchip maker Nvidia recorded revenues of $46.7bn (£34.6bn) in just three months up to July, latest financial data from the company showed, slightly better than Wall Street observers had expected.

The company’s performance is seen as a bellwether for artificial intelligence (AI) demand, with investors paying close attention to see whether the hype is overblown or if significant investment will pay off.

Originally a creator of gaming graphics hardware, Nvidia’s chips help power AI capability – and the UK’s most powerful supercomputer.

Nvidia’s graphics processors underpin products such as ChatGPT from OpenAI and Gemini from Google.

Other tech giants – Microsoft, Meta and Amazon – make up Nvidia’s biggest customers and are paying large sums to embed AI into their products.

Why does it matter?

Nvidia has been central to the boom in AI development and the surge in tech stock valuations, which has seen stock markets reach record highs.

It represents about 8% of the value of the US S&P 500 stock market index of companies relied on to be stable and profitable.

Strong results will continue to fuel record highs in the market. Conversely, results that fail to live up to the hype could trigger a market tumble.

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Nvidia itself saw its share price rise more than 40% over the past year. Its value impacts anyone with cash in the US stock market, such as pension funds.

The S&P 500 rose 14% over the past year, and the tech-company-heavy NASDAQ gained 21%, largely thanks to Nvidia.

As such, its earnings can move markets as much as major economic or monetary policy announcements, like an interest rate decision.

What next?

Revenue rises are forecast to continue to rise as Nvidia said it expected a rise to roughly $54bn (£40bn) in the next three months, more than the $53.14bn (£39.3bn) anticipated by analysts.

This excludes any potential shipments to China as export of Nvidia’s H20 chip, designed with the Biden administration’s export crackdown on advanced AI powering chips in mind, had been banned under US national security grounds.

But in recent weeks, Nvidia and another chipmaker, AMD, reached an unprecedented agreement to pay the Trump administration a 15% portion of China sales in return for export licences to send chips to China.

There were no H20 sales at all to China in the second quarter of the year, the period for which results were released on Wednesday evening.

Previously, 13% of Nvidia’s revenue came from China, with nearly 50% coming from the US.

Market reaction

Despite the expectation-beating results, Nvidia shares were down in after-hours trading, as the massive revenue rises previously booked by the company were not repeated in the latest quarter.

Compared to a year ago, revenues rose 56% and 6% compared to the three months up to April.

The absence of Chinese sales in forecasts appeared to disappoint.

Two children have been killed and 17 other people injured after a shooter opened fire at a school in Minneapolis.

The shooter – Robin Westman – opened fire with a rifle through the windows of a church at Annunciation Catholic School and struck a group of children as they sat in pews on Wednesday morning.

As it happened: FBI says attack investigated as ‘terrorism’

The victims killed were aged eight and 10, and the others injured included 14 children, two of whom were in a critical condition, according to the city’s police chief Brian O’Hara.

Here is what we know so far.

What happened?

Police were called to the school at just after 8.20am (2.20pm UK time) after witnesses reported hearing semi-automatic gunfire at the pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade school.

The shooting happened during a mass for all year groups, coming during the first week of term.

Police chief Mr O’Hara said the shooter – armed with a rifle, shotgun, and pistol – approached the side of the church and fired dozens of rounds.

He called the attack in Minnesota a “deliberate act of violence against innocent children and other people worshipping”.

He also said a wooden plank had been used to barricade some side doors.

Authorities found a smoke bomb but no explosives at the scene, Mr O’Hara said.

The FBI said it is investigating the shooting as an “act of domestic terrorism” and a “hate crime targeting Catholics”.

What we know about the suspect

Police said they believed the suspect died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on the site’s car park.

Mr O’Hara said the suspect had been identified as 23-year-old Robin Westman, a male born as Robert Westman.

Westman is believed to have acted alone in the attack and had lawfully purchased the rifle, pistol, and shotgun used.

He added Westman had scheduled a manifesto to be released on YouTube and that it “appeared to show him at the scene and included some disturbing writings”.

He said the content was taken down with the assistance of the FBI.

Asked about a motive, Mr O’Hara said he had no information to share other than the manifesto that was scheduled to come out on YouTube.

“I cannot confirm a relationship between the suspect or his family and the church at this time, but that’s obviously something we’re looking very closely at,” he added.

What do we know about the victims?

The two children killed have not yet been named publicly.

The others injured included 14 children and three adults in their 80s, according to police.

After the incident the main trauma hospital in Minneapolis, Hennepin Healthcare, received 11 patients, including nine children – aged six to 14 – and two adults, emergency medicine chair Dr Thomas Wyatt said.

He said seven of the patients were critically injured and that four had been taken to operating rooms.

Children’s Minnesota, a paediatric trauma hospital, said in a statement that five children were admitted.

In a later update, Mr O’Hara said all of those injured in the shooting were expected to survive.

‘It seemed like it went on for eternity’

Bill Bienemann, a witness to the shooting, told Sky News it went on “for several minutes – a long time for live gunfire”.

“I know what gunfire sounds like, and I was shocked,” he added. “I said there’s no way that could be gunfire, there was so much of it.

“It seemed like a rifle, it certainly didn’t sound like a handgun, so he must have reloaded several times.”

His daughter Alexandra, who attended the school for nine years, added: “It makes me sick to my stomach knowing that there’s probably people I know that are injured or maybe have been killed.

“It doesn’t make me feel safe at all in this community that I have been a part of for so long.

“Me and my friends were talking, and we said this is like our version of 9/11.”

Madee Brandt, a nanny who works near the shooting scene, pulled into the area just as police arrived and children fled.

“I was thankful to see kids coming out unharmed, safe, but just [seeing] the looks on some of their faces… just the screams coming from the mums who didn’t know where their kids are,” Brandt told reporters.

“You see videos online, but it does not compare to seeing it and witnessing it in person. That was rough.”

Mayor calls shooting ‘unspeakable act’

At a news conference, Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey said the shooting was an “unspeakable act”.

“Children are dead,” he said. “There are families that have a deceased child. You cannot put into words the gravity, the tragedy, or the absolute pain of this situation.”

He said the community didn’t just want prayers, adding: “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.”

‘Deeply unsettling’

Later, he called for action on gun violence, saying: “I think the impetus has to be on all of us as leaders to do a whole lot more to recognise that we’ve got more guns in this country than we have people.”

Minnesota governor Tim Walz added children at the school had been met with “evil and horror and death”.

Responding to the reports, US President Donald Trump said on Truth Social: “I have been fully briefed on the tragic shooting in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

“The FBI quickly responded and they are on the scene. The White House will continue to monitor this terrible situation.”

Minneapolis Police were already investigating three deadly shootings in the space of 12 hours.

“The level of gun violence across the city within the last day is deeply unsettling,” the Minneapolis Police Department said.