Two shot at California high school

LOS ANGELES - Two people were injured in a shooting incident at a high school in the US state of California on Thursday morning, and the shooter is now in custody, local police said.

Students of Taft Union High School in Taft City, Kern County were evacuated to a football field after the shooting happened in a science building about 9 am local time (1700 GMT) Thursday, and parents were told to pick them up, the police said.

Concerned parents listen to Taft Police Chief Ed Whiting after a shooting at Taft Union High School in Taft, California Jan 10, 2013. [Photo/Agencies]

One of the victims suffered minor injury and the other one, confirmed as a student, was airlifted to Kern Medical Center for treatment. There was no immediate word on the student's condition.

Kern County sheriff's spokesman Ray Pruitt told reporters that the suspect was believed to be a student and was soon taken into police custody after the shooting. The weapon was a shotgun.

The motivation behind the shooting is still under investigation, Pruitt added.

The incident came as US Vice President Joe Biden is holding talks in Washington with hunters, wildlife interest groups and gun rights groups on gun control. Biden said that he will deliver recommendations to President Barack Obama early next week.

A series of shooting rampages hit the United States last year and triggered fresh debates on gun control among Americans. On December 14, a campus shooting at a Connecticut elementary school took the lives of 20 schoolchildren and six adults. An earlier shooting incident at a movie theater in Colorado left 12 people dead and 58 others injured.

With a population of nearly 10,000, Taft is an oil and agricultural community some 120 miles northwest of Los Angeles.