A teenager shot and wounded at a suburban Washington school is the latest victim of a sniper accused of killing six people around the US capital, police said.
The 13-year-old was shot once in his upper body at 8 a.m. (1 p.m. Irish time yesterday) as he entered his school in Bowie, Maryland. Hospital officials said the boy remained in critical condition.
Dr Martin Eichelberger said one bullet pierced the teenager's spleen, stomach, pancreas, lung and diaphragm. "He has weathered a significant injury and at this point we are satisfied how he has got through surgery," the surgeon said.
The boy's injury brings the toll to six killed and two wounded in the shooting spree. Police ballistics experts say that the same gun was used in at least four of the attacks.
Monday's incident followed a spate of shootings in the Washington, D.C., area that began on Wednesday, with at least one gunman firing a high-velocity rifle at apparently unrelated victims in public places.
They were shot while going about routine activities such as mowing a lawn, buying petrol, cleaning a car and sitting on a park bench.