Alwaght- At least 17 people have been killed in Florida after A gunman, armed with an assault rifle and smoke grenades opened fire on a local high school, in one of the deadliest mass shootings in US modern history.
Authorities warned late on Wednesday that the death toll could rise as some of the more than 14 people who were wounded were in critical condition and undergoing surgery.
Police say the suspect is 19-year-old Nikolas Cruzwho was expelled from high school for disciplinary problems. He was taken into custody shortly after the shooting.
Officials said the terrorist began shooting outside the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in southeastern Florida at about 2:40pm local time on Wednesday.
He then entered the school and continued the rampage, using a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle.
Those inside the school could be heard yelling "Oh my God!" as shots rang out in videos circulating on social media.
A student told local media he had to wait in a closet while the school was under a "code red" lockdown.
Cruz was arrested an hour after the rampage took place.
"He is in custody. We've already began to begin to dissect his websites and the things that social media that he was on, and some of the things that come to mind are very, very disturbing," Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel announced.
Wednesday shooting was among the top 10 deadliest mass shootings in the US modern history.
Last year, a terrorist opened fire on a church in Texas, killing 26 people. About a month earlier, another terrorist killed at least 58 people at a concert in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Since the December 2012 massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 children and six adults were shot dead, warning procedures and emergency drills have multiplied at US schools.
The latest attack again renewed the debate surrounding gun control in the US.
