US: Woman shoots students dead in class

A young woman shot dead two girl students in a classroom at a college in Louisiana today, then killed herself, police said.

The students apparently were shot in their seats in the second-floor classroom at Louisiana Technical College, a police spokesman said.

Officers ran into the building within four minutes of the first emergency call, which came at 8.36 am, he said.

“There was mass pandemonium, people running. One officer – the first into the classroom – told me he could still smell gunpowder,” said the spokesman.

The students’ names and ages were not released, and it was not clear whether the shooter also was a student.

The school offers classes in a dozen subjects including early childhood education, practical nursing, drafting and welding.

The victims were aged 21 and 26, police said.

Classes were cancelled, and tentatively scheduled to resume tomorrow said Jim Henderson, vice president of the Louisiana Community and Technical College System.

“This is a tragic day for Baton Rouge, when you come to a learning institution ... and become the victim of a violent crime,” Mayor Kip Holden said at the scene.

The shooting came the same day as gunman carrying a grudge against City Hall in the small Missouri town of Kirkwood went on a deadly shooting spree at a city council meeting, killing five.

They were the latest in a number of such attacks across the United States.

A man last Saturday fatally shot five women in a robbery at a clothing store in an outdoor shopping centre in a suburb of Chicago, Illinois. He has yet to be located.

In December, a 19-year-old man opened fire in an Omaha, Nebraska, shopping mall, killing eight people and wounding four before committing suicide.