Investigators were seeking to find out why a heavily-armed shooter opened fire on school children at a church service in Minneapolis on Wednesday, killing two pupils and wounding 17 people in the latest violent tragedy to jolt the United States.

City police chief Brian O'Hara said that the attacker sprayed bullets through the windows of the Annunciation Church as dozens of young students were at a Mass marking their first week back at school.

The church sits next to an affiliated Catholic school in Minneapolis, the largest city in the Midwestern state of Minnesota, where hundreds attended vigils for the victims on Wednesday evening.

"Two young children, ages eight and 10, were killed where they sat in the pews," O'Hara said. Fourteen wounded children were expected to survive, while thre

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