Ten dead in Minnesota high school massacre

Ten people have been killed and at least a dozen others injured after a gun attack by a teenage boy at a high school in the US state of Minnesota.

The shootings, which is the worst school shooting in the US since the Columbine high school shooting in 1999 in which 13 people died, happened yesterday at the Red Lake High School, in Red Lake, approximately 240 miles north of Minneapolis, close to the Canadian border.

The gunman, reported to be 17-year-old local boy Jeff Weise, is believed to have killed his grandparents, before going to the school, which is situated on an Indian reservation where members of the Chippewa tribe reside. He killed seven people there, before reportedly turning the gun on himself.

A local FBI spokesman confirmed that the victims of the shooting spree included a teacher and a security guard at the school.

Witnesses reported that the gunman was carrying several weapons as he entered the school and he was described as "grinning and waving" as he opened fire.

One survivor, student Sondra Hegstrom told a local paper that she heard a girl screaming "No, Jeff. Quit! Quit! Leave me alone. What are you doing?".

The school, which has around 300 pupils, was evacuated after the shootings and police are reported to be conducting an investigation.

Floyd Jourdain, Chairman of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians issued a statement, which described the incident as: "one of the darkest and most painful occurrences in the history of our tribe".

(KmcA/MB)