Suspect 'trained in shooting' by father

Police are still clearing up after the shooting

One of the boys arrested after five people were killed at a school in Arkansas is said to have been trained in target shooting and was taken hunting by his father when a young child.

A family friend said Andrew Golden's father Dennis had recently begun training him in "practical shooting", a handgun competition with moving and pop-up targets.

The friend added that Andrew was a pretty good shot although fairly slow.

The 11-year-old and his cousin Mitchell Johnson, 13, are due to appear in juvenile court charged with capital murder.

Five people died in the attack, which left 11 children and teachers injured. Six people are still in hospital, one critically ill.

The victims were hit when two youths opened fire as students assembled outside during a fire alarm at the school in Jonesboro, 130 miles north-east of the state capital, Little Rock.

Confusion outside the school after the shootings

Two boys were arrested within 30 minutes of the shooting in a wooded area near the school.

Prosecutors say they want to charge the suspects with murder and try them as adults. That raises the prospect of life sentences for the two boys, if found guilty, but it is not clear whether the courts will allow it.

People convicted as juveniles in Arkansas can only be detained until the age of 18.

In view of the seriousness of the crime involved, "we are trying to determine whether other options are available in federal court", said the County Prosecutor, Brent Davis.

He added that the precise reasons for the attack may never be known. Investigators, though, are trying to determine how the boys built up their formidable arsenal.

President Clinton: 'profoundly saddened' by the attack

Earlier, the US President, Bill Clinton, expressed his horror at the attack.

Speaking in Entebbe, Uganda, during his tour of Africa, Mr Clinton said he wanted to extend his condolences to the families of the victims in Jonesboro, a town he said he knew well.

"The American people today should send their thoughts, their prayers, their hopes for the people in Jonesboro," he said.

The incident was the third fatal shooting at a US school in five months and the fourth in which a gunman opened fire on a group of school-children.

'Terrible tragedy'

Mr Clinton said he was very worried about the trend.

"I don't want the American people to jump to conclusions but with three horrible tragedies like this, involving young people who take other people's lives and in the process destroy their own, we have to see if there are some common elements.

"I'm going to ask the Attorney General [Janet Reno] to find whatever experts there are in our country on this and try to analyse this terrible tragedy and the other two," he said.

People in Jonesboro are still trying to work out a motive for the attack. Some reports suggest the boys, who were students at the school, had a grudge against a girl who had jilted one of them.

Pupils at Westside Middle School said the 13-year-old had split up with his girlfriend and a day earlier had said "he had a lot of killing to do".

They also said he had begun bragging about involvement with a gang, and had made numerous threats on Monday.