Teachers avert gun massacre

A US gunman was stopped from going on a Sandy Hooklike massacre of schoolchildren on Tuesday after staff at the California school quickly put the building into lockdown.

Local police say the man opened fire “without provocation” in a tiny rural town, killing four people and wounding at least 10 others, including a student, before police shot him dead.

The rampage began shortly before 8am local time when the gunman fatally shot a neighbour he had been accused of stabbing in January, Tehama County Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston said.

Shortly afterwards, the gunman rammed through the gate of Rancho Tehama Elementary School about 3km away and spent about six minutes shooting into the building, striking at least one student, Mr Johnston said.

Surveillance video showed the gunman, who was not identified, trying unsuccessfully to enter the school.

School officials’ swift decision to lock the doors after hearing gunfire was “monumental” in saving the lives of countless children, Mr Johnston said. No one was killed there.

The gunman left the school after he could not get inside and purposely crashed the stolen truck he was driving into another vehicle and shot at its occupants. The shooter stole the car of a person who stopped to check on the crash and ran away when confronted with a gun. He continued the rampage until police shot him about 45 minutes after it started.

“This man was very, very bent on completing what he set out to do,” the assistant sheriff said.

Police offered no immediate word on the assailant’s motive, but a sheriff’s official said the shooter’s neighbours reported a domestic violence incident a day earlier.

Witnesses reported hearing gunshots and children screaming at the school.

The man appears to have fired a semiautomatic rifle and two handguns at seven locations.