The police in Perry, Iowa, said there were multiple victims in a school shooting early on Thursday morning just as students were arriving back to school after their winter break.

Dallas County Sheriff Adam Infante said at a news conference on Thursday that there was no further threat to the public. He would not say whether the shooter was dead or captured. He said that the shooter had been identified but did not reveal the name.

Infante said that a radio sensor activation went off for an active shooter just after 7:30am (local time) and emergency responders arrived at Perry High School, about 64km northwest of Des Moines, just seven minutes later.

“School didn’t start yet luckily, so there were very few students and faculty in the building, which I think contributed to a good outcome in that sense,” he said.

Jody Kurth told KCCI News, a local CBS affiliate, that her stepson, a student at Perry High School, was hurt in the shooting, and Kurth described the morning attack as “an absolute nightmare”. Her daughter texted her to let her know about the shooter, she said, calling it “one of the worst moments of my entire life.”

Both children were safe, she told KCCI.

At a community centre in Perry, a bus dropped off students from the elementary school, where parents waited for their children to arrive. One of the first parents was Amanda Woods, 34, a mother of two young sons.

“At first I wasn’t sure which school it was at,” said Woods, who had been listening to the police scanner to get more information on the shooting.

“I was freaking out.”

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy kicked off his first campaign event of the day in Perry amid reports of the shooting. The candidate led a prayer circle as attendees expressed fear, but little surprise.

“God please help our country,” said Ramaswamy, calling it a “sombre day”.

Ramaswamy was in Iowa ahead of the state’s Republican caucuses, scheduled for January 15.

Shelbie Lehman came to Ramaswamy’s event with her partner after picking up her first-grade daughter from elementary school after hearing about the shooting at the high school.

“It’s very scary having them walk your kid out with a gun and officer, and having seven, eight cops there,” Lehman told Ramaswamy.

Lehman said it was hard to explain to her daughter why there were so many police and why she was picked up from school. She said she planned to try to explain things to her daughter later as best she could.

New York Times News Service