A TEENAGER WAS killed and eight others were injured in a high school shooting in the United States.

The attack, carried out by two students, took place at STEM high school near Denver, Colorado yesterday. 

It happened a short distance from Columbine High School where 12 students and one teacher were killed in 1999.

“It is with extreme sadness that we can confirm that one student at the STEM School was killed,” the Douglas County sheriff’s office said on Twitter, putting the deceased victim’s age at 18.

The two individuals “walked into the STEM school, got deep inside the school and engaged students in two separate locations,” the sheriff added.

No staff or teachers were injured during the STEM shooting but sheriff Tony Spurlock said several students had been wounded, and were in critical condition. 

Two suspects were in custody – an adult man and a male youth and both attended the school. 

A handgun was recovered at the scene. 

Spurlock said the school notified first responders “almost immediately” and deputies arrived to the scene about two minutes later.

“I have to believe that the quick response of the officers that got inside that school helped save lives,” the sheriff said.

The school was closed for several hours as a large police contingent was deployed at the site. The lockdown was lifted around 3:00 pm.

Columbine

The school, a kindergarten through 12th grade institution in central Colorado with a student population of around 1,800, is located around five miles from Columbine High School.

Two armed teens killed 12 students and one teacher at Columbine in 1999 — at the time the deadliest such attack in US history.

School shootings have since become a frequent occurrence in the US, where firearms killed nearly 40,000 people in 2017, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

There have been almost 50 school shootings in the US between 2018 and 2019.

With reporting from - © AFP 2019