Multiple people have been injured in a shooting at a school in the US state of Iowa, police say, on students’ first day back in classes after their annual winter break....For More CONTINUE THE FULL READING▶▶
Police were called to an active shooter situation at the high school in the town of Perry, about 50 kilometres north-west of the capital of Des Moines, just before 7.40am on Thursday (10.40pm AEDT).
Dallas County Sheriff Adam Infante said there was no further danger to the public but would not comment on the number of victims or status of the shooter.
“Officers first arrived within seven minutes of that activation and located multiple gunshot victims,” he said at a news conference about three hours after the incident.
“We’re still unclear exactly how many are injured or what the extent of those are but we’re working on that right now.”
An enormous number of emergency vehicles surrounded the building that houses the town’s middle school and high school.
Zander Shelley, 15, was in a hallway waiting for the first day of school after break to start when he heard gunshots and dashed into a classroom, according to his father, Kevin Shelley. Zander was grazed twice and hid in the classroom before texting his father at 7.36am.
FBI agents from the Omaha-Des Moines office were on scene to help with the investigation led by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.
Erica Jolliff said that her daughter, a ninth grader, reported getting rushed from the school grounds at 7.45am.
“They won’t tell me nothing.”
The high school is part of the 1785-student Perry Community School District. The town itself has about 8000 residents