The 14-year-old boy suspected of killing two teachers and two students in a school shooting in the US state of Georgia had previously been interviewed by the FBI.
The attack on Wednesday left four dead at Apalachee High School in Winder and nine people were taken to hospital with injuries, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation posted on X.
Authorities named the suspect as 14-year-old Colt Gray, a student who law enforcement interviewed last year over making online threats about a school shooting.
The FBI said that the student will be charged with murder and tried as an adult.
The shooting took place just weeks after classes began in the US and was the first of the new school year.
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“What we see behind us is an evil thing today,” Sheriff Jud Smith of Barrow County Sheriff’s Office said during a brief news conference on school grounds.
Students were released at noon once the incident was deemed under control, a Barrow County Schools spokesman said.
Local TV stations broadcast images of parents lining up in cars on a road outside the school, hoping to be reunited with their children.
CNN reported that the school had received a phone call warning of the shooting before it took place – Mike Stewart/AP
The school, which had an enrolment of nearly 1,900 last year, began classes on Aug 1.
Sheriff Smith said the first call that law enforcement received about the shooting came at about 9.30am, which would have been about an hour after classes had started for the day.
CNN, citing unnamed sources, reported that the school had received a phone call warning of the shooting before it took place.
The school district said that it had no comment on whether such a call was received.
The first call that law enforcement received about the shooting came at about 9.30am – ERIK S LESSER/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
ABC News quoted a witness, student Sergio Caldera, as saying that he was in chemistry class when he heard gunshots.
The student, 17, told ABC that his teacher opened the door and another teacher ran in to tell her to shut the door “because there’s an active shooter”.
As students and teachers huddled in the classroom, someone pounded on the door and shouted several times for it to be opened.
When the knocking stopped, Sergio heard more gunshots and screams. He said that his class later evacuated to the school’s football field.
Live aerial TV images showed several ambulances outside the high school.
CNN said it witnessed a patient being loaded into a medical helicopter that had landed at the school.
“Multiple law enforcement agencies and fire/EMS personnel were dispatched to the high school in reference to a reported active shooting,” the sheriff’s office said.