At least four people have been killed in a shooting at a high school in the United States state of Georgia, and a suspect was taken into custody, law enforcement officials have said.
The shooting on Wednesday (local time) was the first of the new school year in the United States, and took place just weeks after classes began.
It left four people dead at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, and at least nine people were taken to hospitals with injuries, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
One suspect was in custody, the Barrow County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.
“What we see behind us is an evil thing today,” Sheriff Jud Smith said during a brief news conference on school grounds.
Smith would not confirm that people were killed, saying only there were “multiple injuries” in the shooting.
The incident, which took place at the school about 80 kilometres northeast of Atlanta, appeared to be under control and students were being released at midday, a Barrow County Schools spokesperson said.
Local television stations broadcast images of parents lining up in cars on a road outside the school, hoping to be reunited with their children. The school, which had an enrolment of nearly 1,900 last year, began classes on 1 August.
Sheriff Smith said the first call law enforcement received about a shooting at the school came about 9:30am.
Live aerial TV images showed several ambulances outside the high school.
“Multiple law enforcement agencies and Fire/EMS personnel were dispatched to the high school in reference to a reported active shooting,” the sheriff’s office said.
President Biden calls for ‘common-sense’ gun safety legislation
The White House said in a statement that President Joe Biden had been briefed on the shooting “and his administration will continue coordinating with federal, state, and local officials as we receive more information”.
“Jill and I are mourning the deaths of those whose lives were cut short due to more senseless gun violence and thinking of all of the survivors whose lives are forever changed,” Biden said in a statement, calling on Republicans to work with Democrats to pass “common-sense gun safety legislation”.
Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party nominee for president, called the shooting a “senseless tragedy”.
“We’ve got to stop it. We have to end this epidemic of gun violence,” Harris said at the start of a campaign event in New Hampshire.
The campaign of former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the shooting.
