California school shooting: Two dead after gunman opens fire in primary school classroom

A man opened fire in a classroom at a primary school in south California, reportedly killing a female teacher and wounding two children before turning the gun on himself.

The incident, an apparent murder-suicide, happened at about 11am on Monday in a classroom at North Park Elementary School in San Bernardino, east of Los Angeles.

The wounded students, who were taken to hospital for treatment, were not believed to have been targeted by the gunman, police said.

Their conditions were not immediately known.

Police Captain Ron Maas said investigators were working to confirm the identities of the gunman and the dead woman to determine their relationship, if any, and whether the shooting stemmed from a domestic dispute.

San Bernardino police offers stand guard at North Park Elementary School
Getty Images

Authorities provided few details about the circumstances of the North Park Elementary shooting, except to say that the gunman had gained entry to the school as a visitor and kept his weapon concealed until inside the classroom.

The school was evacuated and students were driven to the campus of California State University at San Bernardino to be briefed and interviewed by authorities.

From there, they were to be taken to a nearby high school to be reunited with their families, police said.

Students were evacuated from the school after the shooting
Sky News

Aerial television footage from the scene showed children holding hands and walking single-file across the campus from the school building to waiting buses.

One young student, reunited with her mother, told local media that the incident left her "super scared."

Anxious parents interviewed on camera said they had been given no information from the school other than where their children were being taken.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT