By Holger Mehlig

Chatham (Illinois, USA) - A car has crashed into a school building in the small town of Chatham in the US state of Illinois , killing at least four people between the ages of 4 and 18. Other injured people were taken to hospitals, the Illinois State Police announced on Platform X.

The driver was sitting alone in the car and remained uninjured, but was nevertheless taken to hospital. There was initially no information about the possible background to the incident.

According to the police, the car hit several people outside the afternoon school building on Monday afternoon (local time) before driving into the east wall of the building and hitting more people there. The vehicle then smashed through the west wall of the school. Three of the fatalities were hit outside the school, one inside.

The Governor of Illinois, J.B. Pritzker (60), wrote on Platform X that he was horrified and mourned the victims. "Parents said goodbye to their children this morning, not knowing it would be the last time."

It was only on Saturday evening that a car drove into a crowd of people in the Canadian city of Vancouver . At least eleven people were killed.