Five injured and gunman dead in Ohio school shooting

A GUNMAN injured three teenagers and two adults when he opened fire in an American high school yesterday, US authorities said.

Police in Cleveland, Ohio, in the north-east of the US, said the gunman was dead and appeared to have shot himself.

Students said the gunman was a student at the high school.

Cleveland mayor Frank Jackson said five people were hurt in the shootings at SuccessTech Academy.

Later, he said the victims were two boys, aged 14 and 17, two men aged 47 and 52, and a 14-year-old girl who fell while running out of the school.

He said the children were all “stable, good” and that the adults’ conditions were “elevated”.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper reported that the gunman was believed to be a 14-year-old student, but authorities have not confirmed this.

Police searched the school to ensure it was secure, the mayor said.

“We have no reason to believe there’s more than one suspect,” he said.

One student, Ronnell Jackson, 15, said he saw the gunman running down a school hallway: “He was about to shoot me but I got out just in time.”

Student Doneisha LeVert said she heard the principal say “Code Blue” over the intercom, and the students started running. She said she hid in a cupboard with some of her friends.

Tammy Mundy, 38, who has a son and daughter at the school, said her daughter called when the shooting started: “She said, ‘Mom, they’re shooting in here, kids are running out, I’m hiding in the closet’.”

When she called her 18-year-old son, Darnell Rodgers, on his mobile: “He said, ‘Mom, I got shot’.”