SourceAt least 10 people have been killed in a shooting at a school in south-west Germany, police say.
Most of the dead are thought to have been pupils at the Albertville secondary school in Winnenden, north of Stuttgart.
Reports say the gunman, thought to be a 17-year-old former pupil wearing black combat gear, fled into the town centre.
A search is underway with helicopters circling over the town. Police and rescue teams are at the school.
Earlier reports said a suspect had been arrested, but German police say the gunman is still on the run.
"We have to assume a death toll in the double-digits," a spokeswoman for the interior ministry in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg told the Reuters news agency.
"These are students," she said.
The editor of the local paper, Frank Nipkau, told television channel N-TV that eight pupils and two adults were among the dead.
The chief reporter of the Stuttgart Journal newspaper, Kevin Latzel, told the BBC that there was a lot of confusion at the scene of the shooting.
"It's very horrible... the parents are crying, the pupils are crying and a lot of police is there and nobody knows really what happened," he said.
"They are very afraid, the pupils are calling their parents and the parents they want to pick [them] up but they can't do this, the parents they are not allowed to get into the classrooms," he added.
The attack is reported to have begun at about 0945 (0845 GMT).
The gunman "went into the school with a weapon and carried out a bloodbath", regional police chief Erwin Hetger said, the Associated Press news agency reported.
"I've never seen anything like this in my life," he said.
Witnesses said students jumped from the windows of the school after the gunman opened fire.
About 1,000 children are thought to attend the school, in the town some 20km (12 miles) north-east of Stuttgart.
Only in America.
Last edited by mikkel (2009-03-11 04:49:53)
