BUENOS AIRES: A 15-year-old boy opened fire in a school in Argentina today, killing another pupil and wounding eight other people in a rare burst of US-style violence, officials said.
The assailant was taken into custody after the shooting in the Mariano Moreno School in the central town of San Cristobal, the Santa Fe provincial government said.
“I went upstairs, and just as I was about to come down, some students saw a boy come out of the bathroom with a gun and started screaming,” Priscila, a student at the school, told local broadcaster Radio Con Vos. “He started shooting into the air and we all ran out,” she said.
“Six students were treated for superficial injuries sustained fleeing the scene and are all out of danger,” the ministry said.
Two other students were transferred to the Rafaela Regional Hospital, one in serious though stable condition.
The identities of the assailant and the victims were not immediately released.
The shooting happened as students waited to raise the national flag, a ritual performed daily before classes begin at the school in the town of some 16,000 residents.
The weapon used by the assailant “is believed to be a shotgun,” Ramiro Munoz, San Cristobal government secretary, told TN television.
Classes were suspended and the students sent home.
