Authorities say all hostages have been released from a high school classroom in Marinette, Wisconsin where an armed student had held them.
A student armed with a handgun burst into a high school classroom in eastern Wisconsin today, taking the nearly two dozen students and a teacher hostage at the end of the school day, authorities said. Five hostages have now been released.
A Marinette High School administrator called authorities after 3:00pm (local time) to say a student had taken over a classroom, officials said.
Police Chief Jeff Skorik said officials were able to communicate by phone with the teacher inside and no injuries were reported or shots fired.
Skorik said he did not know what led to the initial five students being released about 8:00pm, but said the teacher continued to act as a mediator between the hostage-taker and authorities.
"There were five released and law enforcement will be interviewing those five to of course gather some more information," Skorik said at a hastily called news conference. "They'll be evaluated and if they need anything, provided services."
A SWAT team arrived at the school, city councilman Bradley Behrendt said from the scene about 80km north of Green Bay.
"I would say there's over 100 officers here, everyone from Marinette County, Green Bay ... It's very shocking. You've just got to hope and pray no one will be hurt," Behrendt said. "They just spent a whole bundle of money on classroom doors to make them secure, but they don't have metal detectors at the school."
The police chief said 23 students were initially held in the classroom along with the teacher. He said police know the suspect's identity and investigators are interviewing his parents.
"We have no idea as far as motivations at this point," the chief said.
Choral teacher Bonita Weydt said she was talking with a teacher in another classroom after school, which lets out about 3:10pm, when principal Corry Lambie came in.
"I said, ‘Corry, what's going on?' and he said, ‘Get out of the building,'" Weydt said.
Officials said parents were asked to gather at the county courthouse, where school officials and mental health counsellors were meeting with families and reviewing a class roster.
Marinette, a town of about 12,000 people, sits on the border with Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The high school has an annual enrolment of approximately 800 students, according to its website.
AP