At least one dead in Iowa school shooting - media outlets

The shooting took place at Perry High School on what was to be the first day of the spring semester

Police respond to Perry High School in Perry, Iowa. Picture: AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

Several people were wounded on Thursday morning in a shooting at an Iowa high school on the first day of classes after the holiday break, officials said.

The shooting at Perry High School took place just at 7.37am (1.37pm Irish time) and resulted in "multiple victims," Dallas County Sheriff Adam Infante said at a news briefing.

The extent and exact number of injuries were still being determined, he said.

A spokesman for UnityPoint Health, which operates the Des Moines hospital, confirmed the two gunshot victims arrived there.

An enormous number of emergency vehicles surrounded the building that houses both the town’s middle school and high school.

The suspect in the shooting has died of what investigators believe is a self-inflicted gunshot wound, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press.

During the briefing, Infante did not confirm or deny that report.

The sheriff did say that the shooter had been identified but offered no further information.

A man and children leave the McCreary Community Building after being reunited following a shooting at Perry High School. Picture: AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall

Agents from the FBI and ATF responded to the scene, and the US attorney general has been briefed, a US Justice Department spokesperson said.

The shooting occurred on what was to be the first day of the spring semester, according to the school district's calendar. 

Perry, a town of about 7,900, is about 40 miles (64km) northwest of Des Moines, the state's capital city.

Few students and faculty were in the building at the time, since classes had not yet begun, Infante said, which may have curtailed the number of victims.

Zander Shelley, 15, was in a hallway waiting for the school day to start when he heard gunshots and dashed into a classroom, according to his father, Kevin Shelley.

Zander was grazed twice and hid in the classroom before texting his father at 7.36am.

Few students and faculty were in the building at the time, since classes had not yet begun. Picture: AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

Rachael Kares, 18, was finishing jazz band practice when she and her bandmates heard what she described as four gunshots, spaced apart.

“We all just jumped,” Ms Kares said. “My band teacher looked at us and yelled, ‘Run!’ So we ran.”

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, an entrepreneur who founded a biotechnology company, had been scheduled to hold a rally in Perry but changed the event to an in-person prayer after reports of the shooting, a campaign spokesperson said.

Iowa will hold the first statewide contest for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination in 11 days.

"Pray for the community in Perry, Iowa this morning," Ramaswamy said on the X social media platform.

Additional reporting by Associated Press