13 PEOPLE INCLUDING CHILDREN SHOT AT SCHOOL IN RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL

At least 13 people, including children and adults, fatally shot at school in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Record TV reports. 
ENGLISH.ALJAZEERA.NET- A man believed to be a former student has opened fire in a school in the city of Rio de Janeiro, killing 12 people and wounding 22 others before taking his own life, authorities said.

"The information we have is that the number of fatalities is 13, and some 22 wounded, including gunshot wounds to the head," Colonel Evandro Bezerra, a fire department spokesman, told Brazil's TV Globo News.

He identified the shooter as 24-year-old Wellington Menezes de Oliveira, who was believed to be a former student at the school. Police said he left a letter saying he wanted to commit suicide.

Thursday's incident happened shortly after 10:00am local time (1300GMT) in Rio, in the western part of the city, Al Jazeera's Gabriel Elizondo, reporting from the vicinity, said.

"What we know so far is apparently a man walked into a packed elementary school in the city of Rio de Janeiro and he opened fire," he said.

Initial reports said he entered the school wearing a backpack and said he was going to a conference, before opening fire in a classroom.

"The person entered, and fired shots," a spokeswoman for the Rio Military Police said.

The victims included students and staff at the public school in the western Realengo neighbourhood.

TV Globo News showed images of the wounded being loaded into ambulances at the public school in the western Rio neighbourhood.

"There is a football field very near the school where police helicopters from the police are landing there to pick up injured people and transport them to area hospitals," our correspondent said.