Two Dead, Three Critical in US School Shooting

Local Editor

A student opened fire at a US school Friday, killing another student and injuring several others before taking his own life, police and reports said.

Three students were rushed to hospital in critical condition, a doctor said.

Marysville police spokesman Robb Lamoureux told reporters: "We are confident that there was only one shooter and the shooter is deceased."

The Seattle Times reported that two students had died, and that four other people had been injured.

Live TV pictures showed swarms of police and emergency workers descending on the Marysville-Pilchuck High School in the western state of Washington.

The shooting occurred in the school cafeteria, according to multiple reports.

"I was eating... I heard four gunshots and it was behind me. I saw a gun pointed at a table... then I ran out of the exit," one student in the cafeteria, named only as Alex, told KIRO TV news.
A student identified as Austin told a CNN affiliate how the gunman was initially "quiet" before opening fire on fellow diners.

"There was just a big group of kids. ... He was quiet. He was just sitting there. Everyone was talking. All of a sudden I see him stand up, pull something out of his pocket," he said.

"At first I thought it was just someone making a really loud noise with like a bag, like a pretty loud pop until I heard four more after that, and I saw three kids just fall from the table like they were falling to the ground dead."

Television footage also showed schoolchildren coming out of the sprawling campus in Marysville, 35 miles north of Seattle, which has some 2,500 students. 

A hospital spokeswoman told CNN: "Four patients came to this center from the scene. Three of them remained at the center... the three most critically ill were kept here.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team