Texas shooting kills at least 8 people, injures 7 others; gunman killed

At least eight people have been killed and seven others, including children, injured by a lone gunman at a shopping mall near the city of Dallas in the US state of Texas.

The gunman in Saturday shooting, whom authorities say acted alone, was killed by a police officer after he began firing outside of the Allen Premium Outlets mall in Allen, Texas, the city's police chief, Brian Harvey, said.

According to local officials, the wounded were transported to nearby trauma facilities.

Allen Fire Department chief, Jon Boyd, said his department took at least nine victims with gunshot wounds to area hospitals.

"(We) found seven deceased individuals on scene. We transported nine individuals to the hospital... Of those we transported, two have since died," he said.

Medical City Healthcare, which runs 16 hospitals in the area, said in a statement that its trauma centers were treating eight of the wounded victims, who ranged in age from 5 to 61, but did not say what condition they were in.

US gun epidemic: More than 10,000 killed so far in 2023 with govt. clueless

More than 10,000 people in the US have died from gun violence so far this year, which means an average of over 111 deaths per day, according to a non-profit research group.

The gunman "was walking down the sidewalk just...shooting his gun outside," an unidentified eyewitness told reporters, adding, "He was just shooting his gun everywhere for the most part."

A video shared on social media showed people running through a parking lot as gunfire could be heard in the background, while aerial footage of the scene also showed a large group of people walking out of the mall as scores of police stood guard.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott has described the incident as an “unspeakable tragedy.”

"There's no more safe places. I don't know what to do," a local was cited as saying.

The city of Allen is a community of about 100,000 people, located about 25 miles (40 km) northeast of Dallas.

The shooting came as communities around the United States are reeling from a spate of school shootings, including the massacre at an elementary school in Texas last year, in which nineteen students and two teachers were killed. 

US victims of gun violence in 2022 include 6032 children under 17

The number of children shot and killed in the United States in 2022 exceeded 6000. The Gun Violence Archive found that at least 6032 children, 17 years of age and younger, had been the victims of America

US President Joe Biden has called on Congress to enact federal legislation addressing the country’s gun crisis and reimpose a ban on assault weapons, which existed from 1994 to 2004.

Firearms outnumber the population in the United States, where the victims of gun violence are higher than any developed country.

There have been more than 195 mass shootings so far this year in the country, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

A Gallup poll from October 2022 showed a majority of Americans are in favor of gun control, with a 57% majority of all Americans saying they want stricter laws covering the sale of firearms.

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