UPDATE - 3 children, 3 teachers fatally shot in US city of Nashville school shooting

ADDS DETAILS THROUGHOUT

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - Three children and three adults were gunned down in a private Christian elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee, law enforcement said Monday as the US grapples with yet another horrific school shooting.

The heavily armed female shooter was killed during a shootout with a five-member police team that engaged her on the second floor of the Covenant School, a Presbyterian school associated with a church, authorities said.

She entered the school through a side entrance, and made her way from the first floor of the shoot to the second "firing multiple shots," Nashville Police Department spokesperson Don Aaron said during a news briefing.

She had at least two assault rifles and a hand gun on her when she opened fire at the Covenant School. Police are currently attempting to identify the gunwoman, but Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake said she was a 28 year-old former student at the school. Police have identified where she lives, said Drake.

One officer sustained an injury from a piece of broken glass, but no other injuries were reported.

The victims have yet to be identified, but five of the six were transported to a local hospital before they died. In all, 108 students and staff members were transported away from the scene following the shooting, according to the Nashville Fire Department. ​​​​​​​

US President Joe Biden decried the shooting, saying it is "sick".

"We're still gathering the facts of what happened, and why. And we do know that as of now there are a number of people who did not make it, including children," said Biden.

"It is heartbreaking, a family's worst nightmare," he said at the White House. "We're monitoring the situation really closely. We have to do more to stop gun violence. It's ripping our communities apart."