A teenage student suffering from depression has shot three students and a teacher at a private school in northern Mexico before killing himself in what state officials called an unprecedented attack caught on security video.
The 15-year-old student pulled out a handgun inside a classroom at the bilingual Colegio Americano del Noreste and began shooting on Wednesday, the officials said, critically wounding three of his victims.
Nuevo Leon state governor Jaime Rodriguez named the gunman as Federico Guevara and said he had died. His motive was being investigated.
Security camera footage showed the teenager quickly and calmly firing what appeared to be seven shots at seated students and a female teacher, some at point-blank range before shooting himself.
Students who had been cowering beneath desks and chairs then fled, stepping over Guevara to reach the door.
"He had depression and was being treated," Aldo Fasci, security spokesman for Nuevo Leon, told local television. "We have no motive yet."
Ambulances, police and soldiers raced to the school, which offers pre-school, elementary and high school classes on the southern outskirts of Monterrey, Mexico's third largest city.
Distraught parents gathered outside, where they were watched over by troops in camouflage carrying rifles and backed up by an armored car. Forensic technicians in white suits checked the scene.
While Mexico has endured a decade-long drug war that has claimed tens of thousands of victims, the country has not seen the type of school shootings that have occurred in the United States.
The nationalities and identities of the victims were not immediately divulged by authorities.
Fasci said one 15-year-old student was shot in the arm, and two 14-year-olds were shot. He said the shooter had brought a .22 caliber firearm from home.
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto lamented the tragedy.
"As a father and as president, what happened this morning at a school in Monterrey hurts me very much," he wrote on Twitter.
