MONTEVIDEO: A young man opened fire at a medical clinic in Uruguay, telling police he was trying to imitate the slaughter of young children and staff at a US elementary school, authorities said Sunday.

Police said no one was injured when the 18-year-old started shooting on Saturday at the health center in the small city of Paysandu, about 370 kilometers (230 miles) north of Montevideo.

Police said the man, whom they did not identify, initially told them his goal was to commit suicide.

But they said he later added that he was trying to imitate the US massacre in which a gunman killed his mother at home, and then 20 children and six staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Connecticut, before turning a gun on himself.

Local media reported that the Uruguayan teenager first went to a secondary school in the city, but, finding it insufficiently crowded, made his way instead to the health center.

He was arrested and sent to a psychiatric clinic.