Student kills four in gun attack at high school
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Your support makes all the difference.A high school student shot dead four classmates and wounded a further five yesterday in Argentina's worst school rampage.
A high school student shot dead four classmates and wounded a further five yesterday in Argentina's worst school rampage.
The 15-year-old began his attack without saying a word, firing a 9mm pistol as students sought cover under desks, police said.
The shooting happened at Islas Malvinas Middle School No 2 in a remote southern corner of Buenos Aires province. "We heard gunfire and a lot of screaming and then everyone coming out into the hallway," said one student. "We saw three bodies on the ground with bullet wounds."
Authorities provided no immediate motive for the attack but said they were questioning the student, who was arrested soon after the attack in the classroom in Carmen de Patagones, about 600 miles south of Buenos Aires.
The suspect turned up at about 7.30am before the teacher arrived, walked into a room with other classmates, unholstered the gun and began firing indiscriminately.
Some students said they thought it was firecrackers going off, until they saw bloodied students screaming as they fled the room, according to a local news agency.
When the shooting stopped, two girls and a boy ranging in age from 14 to 16 were dead and another teenage girl died from her wounds later. Five more students were injured, one was in a serious condition.
Police said they arrested the suspected gunman without resistance soon afterwards in the schoolyard.
Mario Oporto, education minister for Buenos Aires province, said he was shocked by the violence. "Three children killed in a school is cause for great sadness," Mr Oporto said. "This is a case of violence that has exceeded all bounds."
The authorities said they had brought the teenage suspect to a juvenile court centre in Bahia Blanca where he will undergo psychiatric tests as part of first stage of the investigation.
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