News / Society

1 dead and several injured at US high school near Los Angeles

Thursday, 14 November 2019 4:34 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 15 November 2019 1:12 PM ]

There are at least seven victims in a shooting Thursday morning at a high school in Santa Clarita, California.

A shooting at a high school in near Los Angeles, California, on Thursday morning has left one person dead and several others injured, authorities said.

Police and firefighters responded to the shooting at about 8 am at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, about 40 miles (64 km) north of Los Angeles.

The mass shooting sent students streaming out of the building and emergency workers rushing to the scene.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said all of the victims were students and that the gunman was also a member of the student body.

The suspect is in custody and is being treated at a hospital, Villanueva said on Twitter.

The Associated Press, citing Los Angeles County authorities, said six injuries were reported,

Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital said that it had received four patients after the shooting, one, a female died, and two males were in critical condition. One male was in good condition.

All schools in the area were put on lockdown and residents close to Saugus High School were warned to lock their doors and stay inside.

Aerial video showed student with hands raised being escorted by officers from the school of about 2,300 students. At least two ambulances have left the campus with victims.

White House spokesman Judd Deere told The Associated Press that President Donald Trump is monitoring reports on the incident.

Mass shootings have been occurring in California and across the US with increasing frequency.

Last year, Amnesty International warned that the gun violence situation in the US has grown into a full blown "human rights crisis" and the administration of President Donald Trump was doing little to solve it.

In a scathing report the UK-based group warned that “all aspects of American life have been compromised in some way by the unfettered access to guns, with no attempts at meaningful national regulation.”

According to the organization, an average of 106 individuals died a day from firearm-related incidents in 2016, totaling 38,658. Of that figure, nearly 23,000 were suicides and more than 14,400 were homicides, Amnesty said.

The issue of gun violence has become all the more polarizing under US President Donald Trump, a Republican whose presidential campaign was funded partially by the National Rifle Association (NRA), an influential gun lobby in the US.

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