Florida pupil kills teacher

Adults comfort a puil after the shooting

A pupil in the US state of Florida shot and killed his teacher with a semi-automatic pistol in front of other six children.

The shooting happened on the last day of classes at Lake Worth Middle School near West Palm Beach, in a prosperous area.

He [the teacher] was standing out in the hall, telling everybody to go back into class because it wasn't time to be dismissed. Five seconds later he was shot

Pupil Amanda Grunwald, 13

Teacher Barry Grunow - who taught English to second-language pupils - was shot in the face, a spokeswoman for the Palm Beach County School Board said.

A BBC correspondent in Miami says the pupil, identified as 13-year-old Nathaniel Brazill, made an attempt to run away from the scene but eventually surrendered to a policeman.

It is the latest in a series of shootings in the United States which have led to calls for stricter gun controls.

Earlier this month, hundreds of thousands of women across the US staged a series of marches to press for legislation to tackle the high incidence of children killed in gun-related incidents.

Disrupting class

The suspect in the latest incident was sent home for disrupting class by throwing water balloons, Police Chief William Smith said.

Nathaniel Brazill returned to school in the afternoon, made comments to the teacher, pulled out a small handgun and fired a single shot, Mr Smith said.

No-one else was injured in the incident.

Amanda Grunwald, 13, who was in Mr Grunow's class, said the teacher was standing in the doorway, talking to students in the hallway when he was shot.

"He was standing out in the hall, telling everybody to go back into class because it wasn't time to be dismissed," she said.

"Five seconds later he was shot."

Waiting for the bell

A spokesperson for the school district, Mabel Cardec said the children were just waiting for the bell to ring at the end of classes when the shooting happened at about 3.30 pm (1930 GMT).

The worst of the recent school shootings was in April last year in Littleton, Colorado, when two students rampaged through Columbine High School, killing 13 people before taking their own lives.