Iowa school shooting: Student armed with shotgun kills child and injures five others
One student has died and five were injured in a school shooting in Iowa, police have said.
The student who was killed was a sixth-grader, so would have been 11 or 12 years old.
The gunman, 17-year-old Dylan Butler, was also a student at the school. He died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot.
Armed police at the scene. Pic: AP
Butler was armed with a pump-action shotgun and a handgun. Police said he was making posts on social media around the time of the attack.
An improvised explosive device was discovered when the school was searched by police.
Among those injured were students and an administrator, and one person is in a critical condition.
Dallas County Sheriff Adam Infante said there is no further risk to the public after the attack took place before classes had begun.
“Luckily, there were very few students and faculty in the building, which I think contributed to a good outcome in that sense,” he said at a news briefing.
Police respond to the Perry High School shooting
The shooting took place at about 7.30am local time (1.30pm UK time) at Perry High School and officers arrived seven minutes later, the sheriff added.
A huge amount of emergency vehicles surrounded the building that houses both the town’s middle school and high school after the shooting.
Families are reunited at a community building following the shooting at Perry High School. Pic: AP
‘The most scared I have been in my entire life’
Zander Shelley was in a hallway waiting for the school day to start when he heard gunshots and dashed into a classroom, according to his father Kevin.
The 15-year-old was grazed twice and hid in the classroom before texting his father at 7.36am.
Kevin Shelley, who drives a rubbish truck, told his boss he had to leave work.
“It was the most scared I’ve been in my entire life,” he said.
Another student, Ava Augustus, described barricading a door after being unable to flee through a small window – and finding things to throw at the attacker if needed.
“And then we hear ‘He’s down. You can go out,'” she said through tears. “And I run and you can just see glass everywhere, blood on the floor. I get to my car and they’re taking a girl out of the auditorium who had been shot in her leg.”
Perry High School in Iowa. Pic: AP
‘One of our teachers started screaming at us’
A student named only as Carlos, who was outside the school at the time of the shooting, told NBC News: “I just heard a couple of bangs, not really gunshots. They were not very loud.
“We saw a bunch of kids running and we asked what happened … one of my girlfriend’s friends said it was a shooting, there was a shooter with a gun, and we got scared, we thought it was a prank or something.
“That’s when a bunch of cops started coming and we knew it was serious, we were trying to leave and one of our teachers started screaming at us.”
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Armed police at the scene. Pic: AP
US President Joe Biden is following the latest on the Iowa shooting, a White House official said – adding that senior staff have been in touch with the Iowa governor’s office.
Vigils have been planned at a nearby park and a local church, and the high school is going to remain closed on Friday.
Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds said: “This senseless tragedy has shaken our entire state to its core.”
The shooting occurred on what was to be the first day of the spring semester, according to the school district’s calendar.
People embrace outside the McCreary Community Building . Pic: AP
Perry, a town of about 7,900, is about 40 miles (64km) northwest of Des Moines, the state’s capital city.
The mass shooting comes days before the Iowa caucuses, which will kick off the process of Republicans choosing their nominee to run for president in the 2024 US election.
While the attack has once again sparked calls for stricter gun laws, such policies are non-starters in rural, Republican-leaning states like Iowa.
The state does not require a permit to purchase a handgun or carry a firearm in public, though it mandates a background check for a person buying a handgun without a permit.
There were 346 incidents where a gun was brandished or fired at a US school – or a bullet hit school property – in 2023. That’s the highest since records began in 1966, and the third year in a row that the record has been broken.
Four incidents have already been reported since 2024 began.
Donald Trump has ambushed South Africa’s president during a White House meeting by playing a video purportedly showing evidence of a “genocide” of white people in the African country.
The US president, who was hosting leader Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office, said the footage showed the graves of thousands of white farmers.
Mr Ramaphosa sat quietly and mostly expressionless while a montage of videos was played, and he later said: “I’d like to know where that is because this [the videos] I’ve never seen”.
The lights had been dimmed in the room as videos were shown, including of South African officials allegedly calling for violence against white farmers.
South Africa has rejected the allegation that white people are disproportionately targeted by crime.
The videos include one of a communist politician playing a controversial anti-apartheid song that includes lyrics about killing a farmer.
Mr Trump accused South Africa of failing to address the killing of white farmers. “People are fleeing South Africa for their own safety,” the US president said. “Their land is being confiscated and in many cases they’re being killed.”
Alluding to people in the videos, Mr Trump said: “These are people that are officials and they’re saying… kill the white farmer and take their land.”
Cyril Ramaphosa and Donald Trump in the Oval Office today
The US president then displayed printed copies of articles that he said showed white South Africans who had been killed, saying “death, death” as he flipped through them.
He added of one article: “Here’s burial sites all over the place, these are all white farmers that are being buried.”
South African leader rejects allegations
Mr Ramaphosa pushed back against Mr Trump’s accusations, by responding: “What you saw, the speeches that were being made, that is not government policy. We have a multi-party democracy in South Africa that allows people to express themselves, political parties to adhere to various policies.
“And in many cases or in some cases, those policies do not go along with government policy.
“Our government policy is completely, completely against what he [a person in the video montage] was saying. Even in the parliament. And they are a small minority party which is allowed to exist in terms of our constitution.”
Mr Ramaphosa also said of the behaviour alleged by Mr Trump: “We are completely opposed to that.”
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Mr Ramaphosa said there was crime in South Africa, and the majority of victims were black. Mr Trump cut him off and said: “The farmers are not black.” The South African president responded: “These are concerns we are willing to talk to you about.”
Mr Trump has cancelled aid, expelled South Africa’s ambassador and offered refuge to white minority Afrikaners based on racial discrimination claims which Pretoria says are unfounded.
Experts in South Africa say there is no evidence of white people being targeted, although farmers of all races are victims of violent home invasions in a country that suffers from a very high crime rate.
Universal has opened a new theme park to rival Disney World in Florida.
NBCUniversal owner Comcast, which also owns Sky News, is rewriting the Orlando travel itinerary with its $7bn Epic Universe.
The 750-acre park features five worlds themed around movie and game franchises NBCUniversal owns or licenses.
These include Super Nintendo World, complete with a Mario Kart ride, and the immersive Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic.
Pic: Reuters
Fans pose for pictures in Super Nintendo World. Pic: Reuters
How to Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk, Celestial Park and Dark Universe complete the park.
The project is the first major theme park to open in the US in more than 20 years and marks Comcast’s largest investment in Universal attractions since it gained control of the business in 2011.
People riding the Dragon’s Racers Rally rollercoaster. Pic: Reuters
Comcast president Mike Cavanaugh said: “This is the one part of the media ecosystem that is not vulnerable to screen-shifting. It’s still beloved as a thing to do with friends and family.
“It would be silly not to be stepping on the gas.”
The sprawling park covers 750 acres. Pic: Reuters
Epic Universe could attract 9.5 million visitors and bring in more than $1.3bn in revenue in 2026, analyst Craig Moffett has predicted.
Another new Universal theme park is also in the pipeline, with the company set to open its first European resort in 2031.
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The park will be in Bedfordshire and is expected to become the UK’s most popular visitor attraction.
The UK government has said it will bring in an estimated £50bn to the British economy and create around 28,000 jobs.
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