The gunman who took six girls hostage in a high school classroom in Bailey, Colorado, killing one, had sexually assaulted at least some of them, the sheriff said today.

The high school in the tiny Colorado mountain town of Bailey was closed today.

A middle-aged gunman walked into the high school in the US mountain town of Bailey, Colorado, yesterday, shot and critically wounded a student and then killed himself after police commando team members entered the building, authorities said.