PARKLAND — A former student armed with an AR-15 rifle opened fire at a Florida high school on Wednesday, killing at least 17 people, officials said, in a harrowing shooting spree that saw terrified students hiding in closets and under desks as they texted for help.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel identified the gunman as Nikolas Cruz, 19, a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland who had been expelled for “disciplinary reasons.”

Mr. Cruz was arrested without incident in the nearby town of Coral Springs after the Valentine’s Day rampage and taken to hospital with minor injuries, the sheriff said.

“We have already begun to dissect his Web sites and things on social media that he was on and some of the things… are very, very disturbing,” Mr. Israel said.

“He had countless magazines, multiple magazines, and at this point, we believe he had one AR-15 rifle,” the sheriff added.

Mr. Israel said both students and adults had been killed. He was uncertain about the exact number of people injured, but at least 14 were taken to hospital and two had died there of their wounds.

The shooting, one of nearly 20 since the start of the year, will once again throw the spotlight on the epidemic of gun violence in the United States and the ready accessibility of weapons in a country with 33,000 gun-related deaths annually.

“This is a terrible day for Parkland,” Mr. Israel said, speaking of the city of about 30,000 people, located 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of Miami.

“My very own triplets went to that school.”

A teacher at the school told The Miami Herald that Cruz had been identified previously as a potential threat to his classmates.

“We were told last year that he wasn’t allowed on campus with a backpack on him,” math teacher Jim Gard said. “There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus.”

Cruz was also said to have been in the Junior ROTC (Reserve Officers’ Training Corps) program while at school.

A law enforcement source told CBS News that the gunman pulled a fire alarm before opening fire, but Mr. Israel said he could not confirm that report.

Parkland Mayor Christine Hunschofsky told CNN she had spoken to a number of students after the shooting erupted shortly after 2:00 pm (1900 GMT).

“They were very scared,” she said. “And almost in shock when they came out.”

Television images showed students, some with their hands in the air, being led out of the school by heavily armed police officers and an armored vehicle filled with a SWAT team on the scene.

Student Jeiella Dodoo told CBS News that she and her schoolmates had evacuated their classroom calmly after hearing what they thought had been a routine fire alarm.

“The alarm went off so we had to evacuate from our classes,” she said. “Then we heard gunshots.

“I heard about six gunshots,” she said, “and then some people started running and then everyone started running because we were like ‘If it’s real, then just run.’”

Teacher Melissa Falkowski told US networks that she had helped 19 students squeeze into a closet with her.

“We were in there for probably 40 minutes. We were locked in the closet until SWAT came and got us,” she told CNN.

Police officers in helmets, bulletproof vests and armed with automatic weapons could be seen stationed at several points around the sprawling school complex, which serves nearly 3,000 students.

“Just a horrible day for us,” said the superintendent of the county’s school district, Robert Runcie.

“This is very sad to me and our family too,” 61-year-old Joseph Panikulangara, whose 17-year-old niece Dhiya attends the school, told AFP.

The FBI said it was assisting local law enforcement with the investigation.

When asked about security, Ms. Hunschofsky said a police officer is always stationed at the school and there was a “single point of entry.”

NO CHILD SHOULD ‘FEEL UNSAFE’
President Donald J. Trump offered his “prayers and condolences to the families of the victims.

“No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school,” he said on Twitter.

Since the December 2012 massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 children and six adults were shot dead, warning procedures and emergency drills have multiplied at US schools.

But since January 2013, there have been at least 291 school shootings across the country — an average of about one a week, according to Everytown for Gun Safety, a non-profit group that advocates for gun control.

“It is pretty clear that we’re failing our kids here,” said Ms. Falkowski, the teacher who helped shield her students from harm in a closet.

“I’m not saying the solution is one thing or another, but this does not happen in other countries the way it happens here.” — AFP

WITH a deafening roar the fighter jets catapulted off the US aircraft carrier and soared above the disputed South China Sea, as its admiral vowed that the mighty ship’s presence was proof America still had regional clout.

“US presence matters,” Rear Admiral John Fuller told reporters on board the USS Carl Vinson. “I think it’s very clear that we are in the South China Sea. We are operating.”

The Carl Vinson, one of the US Navy’s longest-serving active carriers, is currently conducting what officials say is a routine mission through the hotly contested waters where years of island reclamation and military construction by Beijing has rattled regional nerves.

Following criticism that the Trump administration’s commitment to the Asian region has been distracted by North Korea, reporters were flown onto the ship Wednesday as it sailed through the sea.

In a rapid series of takeoffs and landings, F18 fighter jets roared off the deck, traveling from zero to 290 kilometers (180 miles) per hour in a dizzying two seconds.

Fuller, commander of the Carl Vinson Strike Group, said the 333-meter- (thousand-foot-) long ship’s presence was a way to reassure allies.

“The nations in the Pacific are maritime nations,” he said. “They value stability … That’s exactly what we are here for. This is a very visible and tangible presence. The United States is here again.”

CHINA CHALLENGED
But the location of the strike group — which includes a carrier air wing and a guided-missile cruiser — is also a very direct message to China, whether US officials admit it or not.

Its voyage comes just a month after the Pentagon’s national defense strategy labeled China a “strategic competitor” that bullies its neighbors while militarizing features in the South China Sea.

Beijing claims most of the South China Sea — believed to hold vast oil and gas deposits and through which $5 trillion in trade passes annually — and has rapidly built reefs into artificial islands capable of hosting military planes.

The Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei also have claims in the sea.

Compared to the 11 active aircraft carriers in the US Navy, China currently boasts just one carrier.

But the rising Asian superpower has made no secret of its desire to build up its naval forces and become much more regionally assertive.

Last month Beijing said it had dispatched a warship to drive away a US missile destroyer which had “violated” its sovereignty by sailing close to a shoal in the South China Sea.

Major naval nations like the US, Britain and Australia are determined not to let China dictate who can enter the strategic waters.

They have pushed “freedom of navigation” operations in which naval vessels sail close to Chinese-claimed militarized islets in the South China Sea.

“We will follow what international rule says and we will respect (it), even if there are disputes there,” Mr. Fuller said.

The nuclear-powered USS Carl Vinson — the ship that took Osama Bin Laden’s body for burial at sea — began a regular deployment in the Western Pacific last month.

The carrier is home to 5,300 sailors, pilots, and other crew members as well as 72 aircraft.

Washington has announced plans for it to dock in Vietnam — a first for the communist nation which is rattled by China’s expansionism in the sea and has forged a growing alliance with its former foe the US.

Britain said on Tuesday it will sail its own warship from Australia through the South China Sea next month to assert freedom of navigation rights in support of the US approach.

But alliances are shifting.

The Philippines, a US treaty ally, was once the strongest critic of Beijing’s expansionism in the South China Sea, successfully winning a tribunal case in The Hague over their claims.

But it has changed course under President Rodrigo R. Duterte in a bid for billions of dollars worth of Chinese investment.

Mr. Duterte last week said it was not time to fight China over the row, adding the Philippines should “not meddle” with Washington and Beijing’s competition for superpower status. — AFP

TAIPEI — Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen wished “friends” in China a happy Lunar New Year on Thursday, drawing a surprisingly warm reaction from Chinese state media which is more used to disparaging her as a dangerous separatist.

Taiwan is one of China’s most sensitive issues and a potentially dangerous military flashpoint. China considers the self-ruled island its sacred territory and a wayward province and it has never renounced the use of force to bring it under Chinese control.

China has become increasingly hostile to Taiwan since Ms. Tsai, from the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, won election in 2016, believing she wants to push for the island’s formal independence, a red line for China.

In a video message to mark Chinese New Year, which falls on Friday, Ms. Tsai said the festival was an important one for people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait as they share many of the same traditions.

“Through people-to-people exchanges and media broadcasts, this has narrowed the psychological gap between both sides,” Ms. Tsai said.

“I want to use this opportunity to send new year’s greetings to friends on the other side (of the Taiwan Strait) and ethnic Chinese in other parts of the world.”

China’s state-run Global Times, known for its stridently nationalistic stance and which often calls the island’s president “provincial governor Tsai,” said it would normally criticize her, but in this case would reciprocate the goodwill. — Reuters