2 students injured in shooting at St. Louis high school

ST. LOUIS (AP) — At least two students were injured Monday morning in a shooting inside a St. Louis high school.

The shooting was reported just after 9 a.m. at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School, prompting hundreds of students, faculty and staff to leave the building, many of them running. The school was immediately surrounded by dozens of police vehicles.

St. Louis Public Schools said on Twitter that the shooter was “quickly stopped” by police. A tweet from the police department said the shooter was in custody. No further details about the shooter were immediately released.

The FBI said in a statement later Monday morning that there was no longer an “immediate threat” at the school. The district said the injured students were on the way to the hospital, but did not indicate how badly they were injured.

One student, 16-year-old Taniya Gholston, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch she was in a room when the shooter entered.

“All I heard was two shots and he came in there with a gun,” Gholston said. “And I was trying to run and I couldn’t run. Me and him made eye contact but I made it out because his gun got jammed. But we saw blood on the floor.”

TV reports said officers entered the area with guns drawn shortly after 9 a.m. Crime tape was placed around the school and some parents arrived to pick up kids and check on their safety. The district, in a tweet, said students could be picked up at another school building or a nearby grocery store.

Central Visual and Performing Arts High School is a magnet school specializing in visual art, musical art and performing art. The district website says the school’s “educational program is designed to cre­ate a nurturing environment where students receive a quality academic and artistic education that prepares them to compete successfully at the post-secondary level or perform competently in the world of work.”

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