Maryland school shooting: two students and gunman critically injured

A high school in Maryland is on lockdown after two students were shot by a classmate, according to local law enforcement.

The incident this morning at Great Mills High School, 90 miles south of Baltimore, has been “contained”, said St Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office. Three students are in a critical condition, including the gunman, who was shot by an armed school resource officer (SRO), NBC reports.

The teen gunman entered the school just before 8am, as students made their way to their first classes, and shot a girl in a hallway, Sheriff Tim Cameron said. A male student was also hit by a bullet.

Information on the relationship between the students was “not available immediately”, says NBC.

The shooter was wounded after exchanging fire with the SRO, who was not injured. 

“You train to respond to this and you hope that you never ever have to,” Cameron said. “This is the realisation of your worst nightmare - that, in a school, that our children could be attacked. And so as quickly... as that SRO responded and engaged, there’s grievous injuries to two students.”

This incident comes little more than a month after 17 people were killed in a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

According to CNN, there have been 16 confirmed school shootings this year in the US prior to today’s attack.

This weekend thousands of students are expected to attend the March For Our Lives in Washington DC, where protesters will demand heightened gun control legislation.