Children killed in shooting at US home

Officials say a man opened fire at a house in Houston killing six, including four children, and wounding one.

The suspect gave himself up to police after standoff that lasted three hours [Reuters]

A man has killed six people, including four children, and wounded one in a shooting at a home in the US state of Texas.

The gunman, believed to be the children’s father, surrendered after a three-hour standoff with police who had cornered him in a street near the house in Houston shooting where the shooting took place on Wednesday.

A teenager “critically” injured in the attack was able to call police and later warned that her father planned to go to her grandparents’ home to kill them, officials told the Associated Press news agency. 

The suspected gunman then led authorities on a chase until being boxed in.

The suspect gave himself  up after “two hours of constant talking” said Thomas Gilliland of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.

Officers had arrived at the house on Wednesday evening and found the bodies of two adults and three children. Another child later died at a hospital.

The suspect, a man in his 30s, was estranged from the children’s mother, who was not at the house when the killings happened, Gilliland added.

“It appears this stems from a domestic issue with a breakup in the family,” another official said without elaborating further.

Authorities did not release the identities of the victims or the suspect, nor did they say whether the adults who were killed were related to the children or their father.

Source: News Agencies