Pupil kills four in shooting at high school in US state of Georgia

People gather for a vigil after the shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia. AFP

A 14-year-old pupil opened fire at a Georgia high school and killed four people on Wednesday.

The dead were identified as two pupils and two teachers at Apalachee High School in Winder, about 80km from Atlanta. At least nine other people were taken to hospitals with injuries.

The incident sent children scrambling for shelter in their classrooms as officers swarmed the area and parents raced to find out if their loved ones were safe, authorities said.

Two school resource officers encountered the gunman within minutes after a report of shots fired went out, Georgia Bureau of Investigation director Chris Hosey said.

The suspect, a pupil at the school, immediately surrendered and was taken into custody. He is being charged as an adult with murder.

Authorities were still looking into how the suspect obtained the gun used in the shooting and got it into the school in Barrow County.

The investigation was still “very active”, Mr Hosey said, with lots of interviews and crime scene work yet to be done.

It was the latest among dozens of school shootings across the US in recent years, including especially deadly ones in Newtown, Connecticut; Parkland, Florida; and Uvalde, Texas.

The classroom killings have set off fervent debates about gun control and frayed the nerves of parents whose children are growing up accustomed to active shooter drills in classrooms. But they have done little to move the needle on national gun laws.

Before Wednesday, there had been 29 mass killings in the US so far this year, according to a database maintained by AP and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.

At least 127 people have died in those killings, which are defined as incidents in which four or more people die within a 24-hour period, not including the gunman – the same definition used by the FBI.

Last year ended with 217 deaths from 42 mass killings, making 2023 one of the deadliest years on record for such shootings in the country.