Three injured in US school shooting, suspect in custody: police

WASHINGTON: Three people were injured in a shooting at an elementary school Wednesday in South Carolina, with a teenage suspect already in custody, a member of the sheriff´s office told local media.

The injured are two children and a teacher at Townville Elementary, in the west of the US state, the officer told local broadcaster WYFF.

"One shooter is in custody, he´s a teenager," a member of the sheriff´s office told media, without giving any further details.

Separately a person was found dead in a home around three miles (five kilometers) from the school, in an incident the sheriff´s office says appeared connected to the shooting, the station reported.

Both students were being treated for non-life threatening injuries after suffering gunshot wounds, the area coroner said according to local newspaper The Greenville News. They were transported to a nearby pediatric center by helicopter while the teacher was taken to a separate health facility.

Live images from the scene showed a significant number of police officers and members of the Anderson County Sheriff´s Office heavily armed, some wearing helmets and bullet-proof vests.

The shooting broke out just after 1:00 pm (1700 GMT) and students have since been evacuated on board school buses to a nearby church, local media said.

According to local media the school has 286 students in pre-kindergarten through sixth grade.

School shootings have become a disturbing reality of American life and many facilities have reinforced security in recent years, especially in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012, when 26 people -- among them 20 young children -- were killed at the school in Newtown, Connecticut.