Houston : A student opened fire at a high school in the US state of Texas on Friday, killing at least 10 people, mostly students, in the latest such incident in the country.
The incident took place at Santa Fe High School in the city of the same name, located about 50 kilometres southeast of Houston. An unidentified law enforcement officer was shot, but sources said he was “clipped” and was not seriously injured.
At least 10 people were killed in the gunfire, Houston Chronicle quoted federal and county law enforcement officials have confirmed.
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said a majority of those that were killed in the shooting were students. He said that the two people who were taken into custody, including the person believed to be the gunman, are students at the school.
A search of the school is ongoing, Gonzalez said. He said he has no information about explosives being found at the scene. Several other students were injured in the shooting.
This is the third school shooting in the past seven days, and the 22nd since the beginning of the year in the US. Friday’s bloodshed is the worst mass shooting in America since February, when 17 people were gunned down at a high school in Parkland, Florida.
Witnesses described students running from the school as they heard gunshots; they also described hearing an alarm at the school. Junior Liberty Wheeler, 14, was in class when she heard five shots ring out near the art room.
Her teacher told them to run toward the theatre department’s storage room, where they hid for 45 minutes before being escorted outside by the SWAT team.
“You could small the gunpowder that came from the gun,” Wheeler recalled as she was escorted out of the building. “We were all scared because it was near us.”
The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston is treating two patients, their conditions not yet being disclosed, said spokesman Raul Reyes.