Police in the US state of Georgia respond to reports of shooting at high school

ATLANTA — Police officers in the U.S. state of Georgia responded to a shooting at a high school on Wednesday and there were reports that at least two people were killed.

In addition to the two dead, four other people were injured in the shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, MSNBC reported, citing unnamed police officials who were briefed on the incident.

A suspect is in custody, the Barrow County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.

The incident appeared to be under control and students were released around noon, a Barrow County Schools spokesman said.

Live aerial footage on television showed several ambulances in front of the high school.

CNN said it saw a patient being loaded into a rescue helicopter that landed at the school.

“At approximately 10:23 a.m., officers from multiple law enforcement agencies, as well as fire and rescue personnel, were dispatched to the high school for a report of a shooting,” the sheriff's office said.

The FBI's Atlanta field office sent agents to the high school to assist local law enforcement, said Jenna Sellitto, a spokeswoman for the bureau.

There have been hundreds of school and university shootings in the United States over the past two decades, the worst of which left more than 30 people dead at Virginia Tech in 2007. The massacre sparked heated debates about U.S. gun laws and the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which enshrines the right to “keep and bear arms.” — Reuters