A black-clad gunman killed two children and wounded 17 other people on Wednesday, when he opened fire on students attending Mass at a Minneapolis Catholic school, authorities said, a shocking outburst of violence at the beginning of the U.S. school year.

The assailant, a man in his early 20s, fired dozens of rounds through the church windows at students sitting in church pews and then took his own life, officials said. The children killed were 8 years old and 10 years old, 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

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