AT LEAST 10 people have been killed at a school in Santa Fe in Texas after an armed student burst into an art class and opened fire.
Nearly all of those killed were fellow pupils in what is believed to be the 22nd school shooting of the year in the US.
Police last night said the suspect, Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 17, was being held in custody along with at least one other “person of interest”.
According to a local news outlet, witnesses said the gunman wore a "Born to Kill" T-shirt, a trench coat - despite the sweltering weather - and army boots as he stormed into the classroom.
Armed with a shotgun and a .38 pistol, the gunman shouted "Surprise" before opening fire on the terrified students.
Elsewhere pupils, hearing the fire alarm, thought they were participating in a safety drill before being told to run for their lives.
One of the students, Angelica Martinez, 14, told CNN, “We were all standing, but not even five minutes later, we started hearing gunshots.
And then everybody starts running. The teachers were telling us to stay put, but we’re all just running away.”
The weapons used in the shooting were registered to Pagourtzis’s father.
Police later found an array of explosive devices including a Motolov cocktail, Greg Abbott, the Texas governor, told a press conference.
He added that police had found information on Pagourtzis’s computer and mobile phone indicating that the attack had been planned.
"The shooter has information contained in journals, on his computer and his cell phone that he said not only did he want to commit the shooting, but he wanted to commit suicide after the shooting," Mr Abbott added.
"As you probably know, he gave himself up and admitted at the time that he didn't have the courage to commit the suicide."
Pupils at the 1,400 pupil school 30 miles south of Houston described Pagourtzis as a quiet student who kept himself to himself.
But his social media presence was somewhat different. His Facebook page, which has since been deleted, showed him wearing a “Born to Kill” t-shirt and an Instagram posting featured a handgun and knife.
Reacting to the shooting Donald Trump said: “This has been going on for too long in our country, too many years, too many decades now."
The Santa Fe shooting, coming just over three months after 17 people were killed at Marjory Stoneman High School in Parkland, Florida, will intensify pressure on the administration to tighten gun laws.
After Parkland Mr Trump signalled a willingness to introduce fresh curbs - including stricter background checks and a possible ban on assault weapons – before rowing back following a meeting with the National Rifle Association.