Distraught parents and pupils held a candlelit vigil this evening for the victims of a gun massacre at a Brazilian elementary school.

Two hooded men entered the Professor Raul Brasil State College in the Suzano suburb of the city with weapons on Wednesday, Sao Paulo police said.

Six children were killed as they sat down to their snack break along with two teachers before the shooters killed themselves.

At least 17, mostly children, were also shot at the elementary school and taken to hospitals, police said in a written statement. The state of their health was not immediately known.

Suspect Guilherme Taucci Monteiro, 17, posted up to 30 images of himself online holding the pistol allegedly used in the massacre and wearing a skull mask which was reportedly found at the scene

CCTV images show children running for their lives from Professor Raul Brasil State College in the Suzano, Sao Paulo, which has more than 1,600 students from elementary through secondary school grades

Police have named the two gunmen as Luiz Henrique de Castro, 25. The other was 17 years old and identified as Guilherme Taucci Monteiro.

According to detective who raided the suspects’ homes, Monteiro posted up to 30 images of himself, both holding the pistol allegedly used in the massacre and wearing the skull mask which was apparently found at the scene of the crime.

CCTV images register the moment a white car, believed to be used by the gunmen, draws up outside the school and one of the assailants gets out.

Moments later, dozens of students are seen running for their lives out of the school gates and cameras behind the school show some pupils jumping over the boundary wall in their desperate bid to escape.

The police commander described how the young gunmen used a .38 calibre pistol as well as 'medieval' looking weaponry, including a bow and arrow and a hatchet.

An image which appears to show one of the attackers with an axe tucked into his waistband lying in a pool of blood after he shot himself dead following the attack

The shooting at the Raul Brasil school in Suzano, 60 kilometers from Sao Paulo, was allegedly perpetrated by a teenager and a 25-year-old man who were former students and who later committed suicide

Locals attend a street mass nearby the Raul Brasil public school, following a shooting in which ten people -including the two shooters and five minors- died

Two men light candles during a mass to honor the victims of the massacre, which left 10 dead on Wednesday

Family and friends light candles as they make an ecumenical act in honor of those killed in the Raul Brasil School shooting

Relatives and students react while paying tribute to victims of the shooting in the Raul Brasil school in Suzano, Sao Paulo state. Ten people died including five minors

A youngster is stretchered into the hospital by paramedics in the Suzano suburb of Sao Paulo after he was injured during the shooting at the Professor Raul Brasil school nearby

Distraught students, friends and relatives gathered outside the school gates after attackers opened fire at around 9.30am

A powerful hunting composite bow was also recovered from the scene, as bloody footprints are pressed into the concrete

A notebook in which it reads in English 'Can't Run', found in the vehicle used by Guilherme Taucci Monteiro and Luiz Henrique de Castro, believed to be perpetrators of the massacre

The Prof. Raul Brasil elementary school is located in the eastern suburbs of sprawling Sao Paulo - Brazil's second largest city

The bomb squad was scrambled to the scene as a bag with a wired up package was left by the assailants (right) as well as what appear to be Molotov cocktails (left)

Policemen arrive at the school where a shooting occurred in Suzano city in the metropolitan region of Sao Paulo, Brazil, March 13, 2019. At least ten people were killed and 23 injured on Wednesday

An image purportedly shows one of the attackers with an axe tucked into his waistband as blood spatters the floor around him

Staff members and pupils swarmed outside the school building in the Suzano suburb of Brazil on Wednesday

Police said that the two men wearing face masks entered the school building and started shooting at about 9.30am local time.

Marcelo Salles, commander of police forces in Sao Paulo state, spoke outside and said in his more than three decades of service, he had 'never seen anything like this, it was an unspeakably brutal crime.'

Sales said the assailants used 'a .38 calibre revolver and a medieval weapon that looked like a bow and arrows.'

In addition they carried blades, including a small axe and knives.

Within the school the police found what appeared to be Molotov cocktails and a wired up suitcase.

The bomb-squad were scrambled to the scene as armed officers descended on the school.

Police arrived eight minutes after the shooting started and did not confront the gunmen, who had already killed themselves, he said.

Ten dead, including five minors, and another 10 injured is the provisional balance of the massacre happened in the metropolitan region of Sao Paulo, considered one of the worst school tragedies in Brazil

A sobbing woman uses her mobile phone as she waits for news outside the school as five children were confirmed dead

Police officers guard the entrance to the Prof. Raul Brasil school in the Suzano suburb of eastern Sao Paulo after two hooded men killed ten and wounded many more

Firetrucks and ambulance crews were on hand as news that ten people had been killed and many more injured spread from the Prof. Raul Brasil elementary school

A man weeps outside the school walls as he speaks on the phone after learning what has happened within

A homemade video taken during the shooting and aired by Globo TV showed children screaming, running and begging for their lives as loud shots were heard all around.

Security cameras from homes nearby showed children climbing and jumping over a white wall that surrounds the Raul Brasil building, and sprinting down streets, screaming for help.

Governor Joao Doria says the two attackers were believed to be between 20 and 25 years old.

Doria said the school had been evacuated and police were inspecting possible explosives left by the shooters.

'The school is on lockdown,' he said.

Police officers wielding sub-machine guns dash past coaches lined up close to the school in the Suzano suburb

Heavily armed police are seen on the cobbled street outside the school after emergency services were scrambled on Wednesday morning

Policemen walk along the streets around the walls to the school in Suzano, as a firetruck was also on hand as reports of explosives circulated

Relatives are seen outside the school, many were tearful as they waited for news of their loved ones

A plainclothes police officer can be seen with an assault rifle draped over him as he makes a phone call

Policemen stand guard outside the elementary school in the suburbs of Sao Paulo

The building was cut off by emergency crews as students and staff poured onto the street outside, many in tears.

According to Globo, a 15-year-old described the violence: 'There were a lot of dead people on the ground. They shouted, but I did not understand what it was.

'My friend took a stab in the shoulder and another was shot. I ran away with another friend to my house and came back to get another.'

The school has some 1,000 students between the ages of 11 and 15.

Ambulances could be seen transiting the many wounded victims on Wednesday morning

People could be seen flocking on the street outside the school this morning as TV helicopters swooped overhead

Police officers wearing body armour and holding automatic weapons stand at the entrance to the school

Staff and pupils could be seen pouring out onto the street around the school in the eastern suburbs of Sao Paulo, many were inconsolable

Investigators can be seen working through the school grounds as they looked to secure the location

A policeman can be seen walking through the grounds of the elementary school after the heinous shooting

Two young shooters allegedly opened fire as the school was opening for morning classes - the front of the Prof. Raul Brasil school is seen in this undated photo

In April 2011, a former pupil killed a dozen school children and injured many more before turning his gun on himself at a school in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro.

Brazil is one of the most violent countries in the world with 64,000 murders in 2017, a rate of almost 31 per 100,000 inhabitants - that's three times higher than the level the United Nations classifies as endemic violence.

Far right President Jair Bolsonaro passed a law allowing people to carry arms soon after assuming power in January, delivering on a campaign promise.

Standing outside the school, Claudio Cabral said he had been trying to reach his nephew, 17-year-old Douglas Mourinho, so far without luck.

'He is a smart kid. We heard many students jumped the wall,' Cabral said hopefully. 'Maybe that's what happened.'