The boy, named Kip Kinkle, had been expelled from the 1,700-pupil Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon, the previous day for trying to bring in a handgun. Janice Brady, aged 19, a student at the school, said the boy was known for trying to sell guns. ``He came to school every day and talked about how he wanted to shoot everyone and nobody did anything about it. Just because a person doesn't like school you don't take him seriously, I suppose.''

She said pupils had gathered in the cafeteria before classes after a ceremony in the library to honour students who were graduating next month. The boy came in a side door dressed in a trench coat and dark fatigues and carrying three guns, one a .22 rifle. ``He was justaiming at people and `pow!' and aiming again and shooting again. One boy who tried to protect others was shot.'' The boy only stopped shooting when he was wrestled to the ground.

In a separate incident, a boy aged 15 carrying a 9mm semi-automatic handgun got on his school bus in Onalaska, Washington, on Thursday, took his girlfriend off and then went to his home and shot himself in the head as her father tried to break down the door.

The boy was in critical condition at a hospital in Seattle, 75 miles away. No one else on the bus was hurt and the girl, aged 14, was also not injured. In Springfield, parents waited in a church near Thurston High to discover if their child had been hurt. The boy, who was immediately arrested and questioned by police, was described as moody and volatile and had apparently stolen the guns from his father, who had several.

This followed the pattern of another school massacre in Jonesboro, Arkansas, less than two months ago. Two boys, aged 10 and 13, dressed in camouflageuniforms, began sniping at girls leaving a local school after the pair set off a fire alarm. The boys, who had three rifles and other guns stolen from the father of one of them, killed four girls and a teacher.

In December, three girls were killed when a boy aged 14 opened fire on a prayer meeting. A fortnight later in Arkansas a boy nicknamed `Colt', also aged 14, shot and wounded two classmates. Nearly 20 children have been shot dead in school killings since 1993.

Springfield is a small community near the central Oregon city of Eugene, which is known as the athletics capital of the West. Neither place has a reputation for crime or gangs.

The boy, who was in his first year at the school, was arrested soon after the shooting and is being questioned by police. ``He always said that it would be fun to kill someone and do stuff like that,'' said student Robbie Johnson, who knew the suspect. ``On Wednesday, he told a couple of people he was probably going to do something stupid today and get back at thepeople who had expelled him.''

The Observer News Service