2 dead in shooting at US high school

A student opened fire at his Washington state high school on Friday, killing one person, wounding at least four others and spreading panic among students who scrambled across fields and parking lots to safety, police and hospital officials said.

The shooter at Marysville-Pilchuck High School, about 30 miles north of Seattle, acted alone and was now dead, Marysville Police Commander Robb Lamoureux told reporters.

‘We are confident that there was only one shooter and that the shooter is deceased but we do need to clear each building and make sure that was the case,’ Lamoureux said.

Authorities said they did not yet know what may have motivated the assailant and declined to release the suspect’s identity. Local television station KIRO showed images of students running from school buildings, crossing a sports field with their hands in the air as officers with rifles ran across the school yard. Police and hospital officials said at least four, all ‘young people,’ were wounded, three of them critically and were in surgery.

The school district said students were being sent to a nearby church from where buses would take them home after the school was put on lockdown.