Texas church shooting live updates: At least 26 killed, Pentagon says shooter served in Air Force

The shooting comes just over a month after a gunman in Las Vegas, firing down from a hotel room, killed 58 people .

At least 26 people were killed and 20 other wounded after an armed assailant opened fire at a Baptist church in the US state of Texas on Sunday. The incident took place at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, a small community about 50 kilometers southeast of San Antonio.

The gunman reportedly walked into the church shortly before noon — at a morning service that witnesses said was normally attended by around 50 people — and opened fire. According to officials a civilian with a gun confronted the attacker and chased him away. The shooter was later found dead in his car along with several weapons. While there in no official word on who the shooter was, two officials speaking on the condition of anonymity to The Associated Press identified him as Devid Kelly.

US President Doinald Trump called the shooting an “an act of evil” and denounced the violence in “a place of sacred worship” and pledged the full support of the federal government. He said that in a time of grief, “Americans will do what we do best: we pull together and join hands and lock arms and through the tears and sadness we stand strong.”

Texas shooting Live updates:

7.25 am: Texas Governor Greg Abbott calls the attack as the deadliest mass shooting in the state’s history

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott addresses members of the media about the shooting at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, during a press conference in Stockdale, Texas. (AP)

7.20 am: A US military official says the suspect identified in the mass shooting at a Texas church was a former Air Force member who was stationed in New Mexico at one time.

7.00 am: The shooting comes just over a month after a gunman in Las Vegas, firing down from a hotel room, killed 58 people and wounded hundreds attending an outdoor concert. And it came just over two years after a white supremacist, Dylann Roof, entered a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina, and shot nine people to death.

(With inputs from agencies)