Uvalde shooting: Gunman could have been stopped within three minutes - safety official

There were enough police on the scene of the Uvalde, Texas school shooting to have stopped the gunman three minutes after he entered the building, Texas's public safety chief has testified.

Steven McCraw told a state Senate hearing the police response was an "abject failure".

He accused the on-scene commander of placing officers' lives above the children's.

Police waited for over an hour outside classrooms before a team made entry.

Mr McCraw, Director of the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), told the public hearing: "The officers had weapons, the children had none. The officers had body armour, the children had none. The officers had training, the subject had none. One hour, 14 minutes, and eight seconds - that is how long the children waited, and the teachers waited, in Room 111 to be rescued.

"Three minutes after the subject entered the west building, there was a sufficient number of armed officers wearing body armour to isolate, distract and neutralise the subject."

Many parents and relatives have expressed deep anger at the police handling of the mass shooting, which killed 21 people -19 students and two teachers - at Robb Elementary School on 24 May.

The DPS chief said the scene commander, Uvalde schools police chief Pete Arredondo, "waited for radio and rifles, and he waited for shields and he waited for SWAT".

Earlier in June, Mr Arredondo said he had not considered himself the incident commander, and did not order police to hold back.

He also told the Texas Tribune that he had left his two radios outside the school to keep his hands free to hold his gun.