A mass shooting at a Florida high school by a 19 year old gunman has led to the death of at least 17 people and dozens more injured on Wednesday. The gunman who has been arrested by police authorities had been expelled by the school, the previous year. The shooter armed with an assault rifle, attacked shortly before school closed for the day.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, a placid, middle-class community was recently named one of the most safest places in Florida. The attack is being ranked as the second-deadliest act of gun violence ever on a U.S. public school campus.

Perplexed by the event, students streamed out of the building with hands raised in the air, trying find their way between heavily armed, helmeted police officers, as a fire truck and other emergency vehicles waited nearby.

Footage from a mobile phone recording aired by CBS news, showed what was describes as a scene of the shooting in progress from one of the classrooms. Students could be seen lying on the floor surrounded by mostly empty desks. Loud gunshots could also be heard as well as someone screaming and yelling, "Oh my God."

Some students and teachers hid in the closet for over two hours before police arrived.


The gunman, later identified as Nikolas Cruz, was arrested arrested some distance from the school. CNN reported that the gunman tried to disguise himself by blending in with students who were running away from the school but was spotted and taken into custody, quoting law enforcement sources. According to Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel at a briefing, Nikolas Cruz had attended the high school but was expelled for unspecified disciplinary reasons.

The sheriff added that so far, 12 of those killed had been identified, which included a football coach.



After federal law enforcement officials briefing, two U.S. senators from Florida, Marco Rubio and Bill Nelson, gave an account of what occurred saying the shooter wore a gas mask as he entered the school carrying a rifle, ammunition cartridges and smoke grenades. He then pulled a fire alarm causing students and staff to rush out from their classrooms into hallways.

"There the carnage began," Senator Bill Nelson told CNN.

According to Jillian Davis, a 19 year-old recent graduate from the high, Cruz had strange affinity to knives and guns, adding that no one ever took him seriously.

This is the 18th shooting in a U.S. school according to gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety.