SANTA FE, Texas, USA, 18 May. - (ANA) — Ten people have been killed and 10 others injured after a student opened fire at a Texas high school, the state governor said.

 

     

The attacker, who was arrested and charged with murder, was identified as Dimitrios Pagourtzis, a 17-year-old pupil at Santa Fe High School.

     

 

He allegedly used a shotgun and a revolver taken from his father, who legally owned the weapons.

Most of the dead are students, police said.

     

 

Texas Governor Greg Abbott said "various kinds of explosive devices" had been found at the school, 40 miles (65km) south of Houston, and off-campus. They included "a CO2 device" and "a Molotov cocktail", he said.

Mr Abbott said police found information on the suspect's diary, computer, and mobile phone suggesting that he planned the attack and intended to kill himself afterwards.

 

     

The governor said the teenager "gave himself up" because "he didn't have the courage to commit the suicide".

 

     

A nation plagued by a wrenching loop of mass school shootings watched the latest horror play out in this small Southeast Texas town Friday morning, as a young man armed with a shotgun and a .38 revolver smuggled under his coat opened fire on his high school campus, killing 10 people, many of them his fellow students, and wounding 10 more, the authorities said.

     

 

By the end of the day, the 17-year-old suspect, Dimitrios Pagourtzis — an introvert who had given off few warning signs — had surrendered and been taken into custody. Law enforcement officials said they found two homemade explosive devices left at the school during the rampage.

       

 

It was the worst school shooting since the February assault on Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., where a young man with an AR-15 rifle left 17 people dead and prompted a wave of nationwide, student-led protests calling on lawmakers to tighten gun laws.

          

 

It was barely after 7:30 a.m. at Santa Fe High School, about 35 miles southeast of Houston, when gunfire first resounded through the halls, the opening volley of yet another massacre at an American high school that would leave students, teachers and staff members shocked, and in some cases bloodied. But they were not necessarily surprised.

 

     

A video interview with one student, Paige Curry, spread across social media, an artifact of a moment when children have come to expect violence in their schools.

 

 

“Was there a part of you that was like, ‘This isn’t real, this is — this would not happen in my school?’” the reporter asked.

 

 

The young girl shook her head: “No, there wasn’t.”

 

 

“Why so?” the reporter asked.

 

 

“It’s been happening everywhere,” she said. “I felt — I’ve always kind of felt like eventually it was going to happen here, too.”

 

 

Mr. Trump did not press for action on any of those initiatives, and Congress did not follow through. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said on Friday that the Justice Department was proposing to ban so-called bump stocks through regulations rather than wait for Congress to act.

 

 

The authorities had not released the names of those who died in the shooting late Friday, but family and associates of some of the victims had begun to share their stories on social media. 

     

 

The shooting in Texas began at the start of a school day when summer seemed just around the corner. The night before, seniors had gathered for a sunset dinner and a Powder Puff football game, according to the school’s website, and the baseball team had been playing in the regional quarterfinals.

 

     

In a news conference Friday, the authorities released few details of their encounter with Mr. Pagourtzis, but Col. Steven C. McCraw, the director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said that police officers had responded quickly. At one point, Colonel McCraw said, a police chief rescued an officer who had been critically wounded.  - (ANA) -

 

AB/ANA/18 May 2018 - - -