Two men who chased a gunman after he killed 26 in a Texas church yesterday have been hailed as heroes.

Local man, Johnnie Langendorff  was driving by the Sutherland Springs church as the shooting was taking place. He helped another local resident chase the gunman after he fled.  

A local resident with a rifle fired at the suspect as he left the church. The gunman dropped his Ruger assault weapon and fled in his vehicle, said Freeman Martin, regional director of the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Langendorff told San Antonio television station KSAT he was driving near the church when the resident who had opened fire on the gunman approached his truck and urged him to give chase.

"He said that we had to get him (the gunman), and so that's what I did. He added they reached speeds of 95 miles per hour during the chase, while he was on the phone with emergency dispatchers.

Soon afterward, the suspect crashed the vehicle near the border of a neighbouring county and killed himself.  A cache of weapons was found in his vehicle. 

Law enforcement officials named the gunman as Devin Patrick Kelley, a white, 26-year-old man.

"We don't think he had any connection to this church," Wilson County Sheriff Joe Tackitt told CNN. "We have no motive."