At least two teenagers have been killed and several others injured in a shooting incident in the US state of California.
The shooting occurred at a high school in Santa Clarita, north of Los Angeles County, on Thursday.
A 16-year-old male student is the suspect. He was taken into custody and is in the hospital in “grave condition” from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.
Video from the scene showed the gunman in the quad of Saugus High School took a gun from his backpack, shot five people and then shot himself in the head, according to authorities.
A 14-year-old girl and a 15-year-old girl were fatally shot, officials said.
Terrified students barricaded in classrooms before fleeing the campus in search for their worried parents, who had gathered in the streets, ABC News reported.
“I just started running,” sophomore Brooklyn Moreno said. “There was girls falling in front of me and I tried to help them up, then just kept running ’cause I didn’t want to get hurt, either.”
Los Angeles county sheriff Alexander Villanueva said, “I regret to inform it’s a sad day in Saugus, is a sad day in Los Angeles County in the nation for another tragic shooting at a school. At 7:38 (1538GMT) morning, Santa Clarita Sheriff’s Station received a 911 call of a shooting at Saugus High School.”
“Within seconds we received multiple calls, and within two minutes at 740, our first units arrived on scene and encountered in the quad area of the school multiple victims – gunshot wounds. There were a total of six victims who were promptly triaged and transported to the local hospitals for treatment,” Villanueva added.
The incident is the fourth mass shooting in California this year. The violence comes amid an ongoing debate on the US government’s inaction to tackle growing gun violence.
Official reports say over 125 people died in 26 mass shootings across the US in the summer. – Press TV.
