Pupils gunned down in US school attack
UP TO 10 FEARED DEAD IN TEXAS
AT LEAST one gunman has opened fire at a Texas high school, killing eight to 10 people, most of them pupils, authorities said.
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said he could not be precise about the number of deaths at Santa Fe High School.
Two suspects, believed to be students, are in custody.
It was the nation’s deadliest school shooting since the February attack in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 people and re-energised the gun-control movement after survivors launched a campaign for reform.
A school police officer is being treated in hospital, the sheriff said, but there was no immediate word on the extent of his injuries.
Authorities said possible explosive devices had been found at the school, some 30 miles south east of Houston, and experts were in the process of rendering them safe. There was no indication how many devices have been found. Police asked the public to “remain vigilant” and to call 911 if they saw any suspicious items.
One student told Houston television station KTRK in a telephone interview that a gunman came into her first-period art class and started shooting.
She said she saw one girl with blood on her leg as the class evacuated the room.
Vice president Mike Pence said he and President Donald Trump had been briefed on the shooting.