Student (15) shoots classmates at American school in Mexico

Perpetrator turns weapon on himself after three students and teacher gravely injured

Forensic technicians work outside the Colegio Americano del Noreste after a student opened fire at the American school in Monterrey, Mexico. Photograph: Reuters
Forensic technicians work outside the Colegio Americano del Noreste after a student opened fire at the American school in Monterrey, Mexico. Photograph: Reuters

A teenage student suffering from depression opened fire at an American school in northern Mexico on Wednesday, injuring three students and a teacher then shooting himself in the chin in what state officials called an unprecedented attack that was caught on video.

Local media had earlier reported three people were killed.

Aldo Fasci, security spokesman for the northern state of Nuevo Leon, said the 15-year-old student entered the Colegio Americano del Noreste with a gun and started shooting, leaving three of the victims and himself gravely injured.

“In the video, you can see the minor take out the gun, shoot the teacher and then another child,” Fasci told local television. “He is there for a while, pointing at other students, and a few minutes later he opens fire. We have no motive yet.”

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Monterrey

Television footage showed ambulances and police outside the private bilingual school, which includes pre-school, elementary and high school classes, located south of the industrial city of Monterrey.

Mr Fasci said one 15-year-old student was shot in the arm and two 14-year-olds were shot and injured. There were no details on the nationalities of the victims.

He said the alleged perpetrator was being treated for depression and had brought a .22 calibre firearm from home.

Oscar Aboytes, spokesman for emergency services in Nuevo Leon, said all of the wounded were taken to hospital.

Photographs widely distributed on social media showed three people lying on the floor of a classroom with pools of blood around their heads.