A sixth grader has been killed and five other people have been injured during a school shooting in a small town in Iowa, police have said.
Students preparing for their first classes after the winter break were forced to duck into classrooms and barricade themselves in offices before the suspected shooter was found dead.
The suspect, a 17-year-old student at the school in Perry, died of what investigators believe is a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and at least one of the victims is a school administrator, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press.
Students in the sixth grade in the US are usually 11 or 12 years old.
The shooting at Perry High School was reported at around 7:37am on Thursday morning and officers arrived seven minutes later, according to Dallas County Sheriff Adam Infante.
The sheriff told reporters that the school had not started when the shooting began and that there is “no further danger to the public” at a news briefing.
President Joe Biden is reportedly tracking the latest updates on the shooting, a White House official said and senior staff have been in touch with the Iowa governor’s office.
High school senior Ava Augustus said she was in a counsellor's office, waiting for hers to arrive, when she heard three shots.
She and other people barricaded the door, preparing to throw things if necessary, with a window being too small for an escape."And then we hear 'He's down. You can go out,"' the student said through tears. "And I run and you can just see glass everywhere, blood on the floor. I get to my car and they're taking a girl out of the auditorium who had been shot in her leg."
Rachael Kares, an 18-year-old senior, was wrapping up jazz band practice at 8:37am when she and her bandmates heard what she described as four gunshots, spaced apart."We all just jumped," Ms Kares said. "My band teacher looked at us and yelled, 'Run!' So we ran."The student and many others from the school ran out past the football field, as she heard people yelling, "Get out! Get out!"
She said she heard additional shots as she ran, but didn't know how many.Zander Shelley, 15, was in a hallway waiting for the school day to start when he heard gunshots and dashed into a classroom, according to his father, Kevin Shelley.
The high school is part of the 1,785-student Perry Community School District. Thursday was the first day back in school for students following the holiday break.
An enormous number of emergency vehicles surrounded the building that houses the town's middle school and high school.Erica Jolliff said that her daughter, a ninth grader, reported getting rushed from the school grounds at 7:45am.
Distraught, Ms Jolliff was still looking for her son Amir, a sixth grader, one hour later."I just want to know that he's safe and OK," she told the Associated Press. "They won't tell me nothing."
FBI agents from the Omaha-Des Moines office are at the scene to help with the investigation led by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.
