Eight dead and many injured in Texas school shooting

At least eight people are dead and a number of people have been injured in a shooting at a Texas high school on Friday, according to local reports.

Students evacuated Santa Fe high school, about 35 miles south-east of downtown Houston, amid a heavy presence of law enforcement and medical first responders.

“This morning an incident occurred at the high school involving an active shooter. The situation is active, but has been contained. There have been confirmed injuries the Santa Fe school district said in a statement.

Sign up to receive the top US stories every morning 

An assistant principal said the shooter “has been arrested and secured”, according the Associated Press.

Local media reported by Friday mid-morning that at least eight people were dead, a local law enforcement source told ABC TV. The shooter was reportedly a student. One student told KHOU local news that he saw a girl limping after being shot in the leg.

Major Douglas Hudson of Galveston county sheriff’s department, said units were responding to reports of shots fired, but said he had no immediate details on whether anyone had been hurt. 

One student told Houston television station KTRK in a telephone interview that a gunman came into her first-period art class and started shooting. “We thought it was a fire drill at first but really, the teacher said, ‘Start running,”’ the student told the television station.

“We were in class, it was first period. The alarm started going off, everybody went outside, all the teachers were like ‘get this way, get this way, come over here’. Next thing you know we hear the booms and everybody starts running as fast as they can,” Dakota Shrader, a 10th grader, told reporters. A friend was shot in the leg, she said, “and the next thing you know all the art [class] windows are getting shot, shattered.”

Authorities have not yet confirmed that report. Aerial footage from the scene showed students standing in a grassy field and three life-flight helicopters landing at the school.

The US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said it was responding to a shooting at the school.

There was a large law enforcement response to the same school in February when it was placed on lockdown after students and teachers said they heard “popping sounds”.

Santa Fe police swept the campus but found no threat.

Santa Fe is a city of about 13,000 residents located 30 miles (48km) south-east of Houston. - The Guardian