By Jana Winter and Andrew Hay

(Reuters) -Two children were killed and 17 other people were injured on Wednesday after a gunman opened fire on schoolchildren who were attending Mass at a Minneapolis Catholic school, authorities said.

The assailant, wielding a rifle, a shotgun and a pistol, fired dozens of rounds through the church windows, officials said. The shooter then took his own life, they said.

"This was a deliberate act of violence against innocent children and other people worshiping. The sheer cruelty and cowardice of firing into a church full of children is absolutely incomprehensible," Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara told reporters.

The shooting occurred two days after school started at Annunciation Catholic school, a private elementary school with about 395 students.

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