Washington: Two children and a teacher were shot by a 14-year-old boy at an elementary school in Townville, South Carolina, a spokesman for Anderson County Emergency Management told reporters on Wednesday afternoon.
The students were sent to a local trauma centre. One child was taken to Greenville Health System emergency trauma centre by helicopter. The teacher was also hospitalised.
The teenager shot his 47-year-old father, Jeffrey DeWitt Osborne, in the chest then drove a pickup truck about 2 miles (3.2 km) to the school where he crashed the vehicle into the fence surrounding the playground and opened fire with a handgun, wounding two children and a teacher. The shooting left a 6-year-old boy in critical condition and undergoing surgery. The other boy and a female teacher were in good condition.
Anderson County Sheriff’s Office Captain Garland Major did not know the relationship between the shooter and those injured at the school. The suspect was home schooled, authorities said.
Immediately after the shooting, armed officers guarded students as they were evacuated from the school and taken by bus to a nearby church, local media said. Television images showed police swarming the school, with some officers on the roof while others moved around the building.
The suspected shooter is in custody. The incident was the latest in a series of shootings at U.S. schools that have fuelled the debate about access to guns in America.
