US: Washington-area parents were thrown into panic yesterday after a 13-year-old boy was shot in the chest and critically wounded as his aunt dropped him off at school.
A sniper still on the loose has shot dead six people in the city suburbs, five in Montgomery County, since last Wednesday, and the shooting appeared to fit his pattern of random killing.
With everyone a potential target, the sniper has spread terror in the suburbs of the US capital on a scale hitherto unknown in the US, where school shootings have usually involved disturbed pupils.
Police have no experience of dealing with a highly trained sniper moving around and picking his targets among ordinary people unrelated to each other.
Schools were locked and all outside activities cancelled in Montgomery and Prince George's County after the boy was shot with one bullet just moments after he was dropped off at Benjamin Tasker Middle School in Prince George's County yesterday morning.
The aunt heard the shot, which apparently came from a group of trees, and turned to see the boy slump to the ground in a pool of blood. She carried him to her car and took him to a small hospital nearby, from where he was transferred by helicopter to Children's Hospital, Washington. Last night his condition was stable.
Forensic evidence had not definitely connected the shootings by late yesterday but the pattern was the same as that established by the sniper last week: one deadly shot from a high-powered weapon fired at a random target from a concealed position. The shooting happened well before classes were scheduled to begin and when there were few people about.
With so many children going to school, there was an "enhanced target-rich environment" for the sniper, said Montgomery County police chief Mr Charles Moose, who has had to face the cameras several times a day to admit they have no clue to the killer's identity. "All of our victims have been innocent and defenceless, but now we're stepping over the line," he said, tears streaming down his face.
"Shooting a kid - it's getting to be really, really personal now."
Montgomery County executive Mr Douglas Duncan said: "Whether they're connected or not, the fear has ratcheted up quite a bit, the community is in a state of fear."
Police poured over maps to try to put together a psychological profile of the killer, who on Wednesday and Thursday shot five people dead in Montgomery County and a sixth in Washington, and on Friday wounded a woman outside a store in Virginia.
US President Mr George W. Bush was kept informed of events and White House press secretary Mr Ari Fleischer said federal authorities have been "very involved on the ground and have lent support and equipment". He said there was no evidence of terrorism at this point.