A week after the massacre at a Texas elementary school, a man in the US state of Oklahoma opened fire in a hospital, killing three people, according to police.

The shooter was also dead, police said on Wednesday evening (local time) in the city of Tulsa.

The police had previously reported several injuries.

Security forces are currently searching the building belonging to St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa, sources said.

Councilman Jayme Fowler told CNN that it appears the shooter took his own life.

Police said officers were called to the hospital in the afternoon about a man armed with a gun.

There was initially no reliable information about the background to the crime.

Councilman Fowler said, "As far as I know, the shooter had a problem with a particular doctor and he couldn't find that doctor." That was the trigger for the violent behavior.

The White House said US President Joe Biden had been informed of the crime.

Local and state authorities have been offered support.

series of shootings

The United States is currently being rocked by a spate of acts in which gunmen open fire and kill several people.

Just last Tuesday, an 18-year-old opened fire at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

The gunman holed himself up in a classroom and killed 19 children and two teachers before being shot dead by police.

A few days earlier, a gunman opened fire in a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, killing ten people and injuring three others.

According to investigators, the act was racially motivated – 11 of the 13 victims were black.

Prosecutors said charges would be brought against the suspected shooter this Thursday in Buffalo.

The Uvalde killing spree in particular has once again fueled the debate about tightening gun laws in the USA.

US President Joe Biden – a Democrat – has spoken out in favor of it.

For years, however, many Republicans have opposed stricter regulations, such as a ban on assault rifles.

The US has long struggled with massive levels of gun violence.

In 2020, gun injuries were the number one killer of children and adolescents in the United States, ahead of traffic accidents.