Florida gun rampage
At least seven dead as teen wearing gas mask storms US high school
A TEENAGE gunman wearing a gas mask killed at least seven people at a US high school yesterday.
It was reported he shot up to 50 victims – with more than a dozen needing treatment.
Pupils barricaded themselves in classrooms or fled with their hands in their air as police and SWAT teams swarmed the school.
Police took two hours to capture the attacker, named as 19-year-old student Nicolas Cruz, who had stormed Majory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, shortly before students were to be dismissed for the day.
‘There are numerous fatalities. It’s a horrific situation,’ Broward County schools superintendent Robert Runcie told reporters.
The local sheriff’s office said that there were ‘at least 14 victims’, while Florida senator Bill Nelson said there had been a number of fatalities. Sources told CBS News that at least seven were dead. Cruz was described as a pupil and member of the US army junior reserve officers’ training corps program.
One report last night said he may have been previously flagged up to authorities as a threat.
During the standoff, police officers wearing helmets and bullet-proof vests, and armed with automatic weapons, could be seen at several points around the school.
One unidentified student told local TV: ‘What happened was that the fire bell rang and we all thought it was a drill because we had already had a fire drill. We thought it’s another drill so we didn’t take it seriously and then we heard pops from the other side of the school.’
Teachers and students in the building were advised to ‘remain barricaded inside until police reach you’. They stayed inside until they were rescued by officers in tactical gear and reunited with anxious family members outside.
A local television reporter said he had been in touch via text message with one female student, who told him she had taken refuge in a closet with a number of classmates.
The teenager told the reporter that she had heard a noise that ‘sounded like a bomb,’ and a drama teacher had then told the pupils to huddle inside the closet.
‘Everyone inside is very scared, it’s very warm,’ the student was quoted as saying.
McKenzie Hartley, 19, who identified herself as the sister of a pupil, said: ‘ She heard him shooting through the windows of classrooms and two students were shot.’
Footage later showed Cruz wearing a maroon top as he was put in the back of a cruiser by six officers.
Donald Trump offered his ‘prayers and condolences’ to the families of victims. The US President wrote on Twitter: ‘No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school.
‘Just spoke to Governor Rick Scott. We are working closely with law enforcement on the terrible Florida school shooting.’
The school, about 45 miles north of Miami, and has about 3,100 students had been placed on a ‘code red’ lockdown.
Neighbouring Coral Springs Police Department tweeted to say that there was an ‘active shooter’.
The shooting, one of several since the start of the year, will once again throw the spotlight on America’s epidemic of gun violence and the ready accessibility of weapons.
‘Sounded like a bomb’