US: St. Louis high school shooting leaves three dead, including suspect

Missouri (United States): At least three people, including the suspect, have died and seven others are injured after a shooting at a high school in St Louis, Missouri.

Chaos unfolded shortly after 9 a.m. when authorities learned of a shooter with a long gun inside Central Visual and Performing Arts High School. The school and the Collegiate School of Medicine and Bioscience, which is in the same building, were locked down.

After a gunfight with authorities, the suspect was taken into custody and later pronounced dead, a St. Louis police official told reporters.

He was identified as a recent graduate of Central with no criminal history, the police commissioner, Lt. Col. Mike Sack, told reporters at an evening news conference.

Sack said the gunman entered the school with a rifle in an “aggressive, violent manner.”

Neither his motive nor his connection to the school of about 400 students has yet been identified.

“There was no mystery about what was going to happen,” he said. A motive remained unclear; Sack said the apparent gunman may have been experiencing a mental illness.

Sack declined to provide additional details, saying investigators were still gathering information.