Gunman dies after storming school

The school was quickly evacuated
A gunman has been found dead after storming a school in Germany, injuring a teacher and several pupils.

According to reports, explosive material was found on the body of the man at the Geschwister Scholl school, in Emsdetten.

The man, reported to have been a former pupil of the school, apparently killed himself as police circled the building.

While resolved, the incident stirs unhappy memories of 2002, when a former pupil killed 18 people in his school.

School safety

Those killings prompted a wave of German soul-searching about violence and school security, coming just months after another gunman had walked into a school and shot dead his former head teacher.

A total of eight people are reported to have been wounded in this latest incident, although none seriously, police say.

The Geschwister Scholl school, which has about 700 pupils aged between 11 and 16, was rapidly evacuated, and a special forces unit surrounded the building.

Negotiations with the gunman were started, and members of the unit also entered the building.

According to Der Spiegel, police are treating a suicide note left on the internet as authentic.

"If there was one thing which was really brought home to me at school, it was that I'm a loser," it read. "I detest people."