Four-year-old takes gun to school in Texas

A four-year-old in Texas brought a loaded handgun to school, officials said, as the end of summer vacation in America reignites fears of school shootings.

The scare on Wednesday in Corpus Christi came two days after a similar incident in Arizona, that time involving a child aged seven.

In the Texas case, an off-duty police officer working at the school "called in for assistance advising that a four-year-old student was in possession of a loaded handgun on campus," police said in a statement.

The officer took possession of the weapon.

The parents of the child were identified as the owners of the gun and the father, aged 30, was arrested and charged with making a firearm accessible to children and abandoning or endangering a child.

Americans have become tragically accustomed to periodic mass shootings at schools. In May, 19 small children and two teachers were killed at a massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

On Monday in Arizona a seven-year-old child was found to have a non-loaded gun, along with a fully-loaded magazine in their backpack at a school in the town of Cochise, the sheriff's office said.