WASHINGTON, March 8, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - One teenager died and another two
were wounded outside their high school in the US state of Iowa Monday, in
what police said appeared to have been a drive-by shooting.

  Des Moines police officers and fire department rescue personnel arrived at
East High School in the center of the state capital around 2:48 pm (2048
GMT), the police department said in a statement.

  The department had "received several calls reporting gunfire at the school,
and multiple persons injured," Sergeant Paul Parizek, a public information
officer, said in the statement.

  Three teenagers had been shot and were transported to hospitals.

  One of the victims has since died and the other two remain hospitalized,
the police statement said, without giving further details on their condition.

  "The gunfire appears to have come from a passing vehicle," the statement
said, adding the victims were on school property but outside the school
building at the time of the shooting.

  East High temporarily locked down after the initial reports of the
shooting, according to a tweet on the Des Moines Public Schools official
account.

  Des Moines police and public safety officers gave the school the all-clear
to dismiss the students soon after.

  Potential suspects have been detained, but no charges have been filed. The
police statement did not say how many suspects had been arrested or who they
were.

  Mass killings involving firearms are a common occurrence in the United
States.

  Lax gun laws and the right to bear arms have repeatedly stymied attempts to
clamp down on the number of weapons in circulation, despite greater controls
being favored by the majority of Americans.