An unidentified 15-year-old student opened fire inside a Kentucky high school on Tuesday, January 23, 2018, killing two of his classmates, injuring 19 and sending dozens of students scrambling for safety.

The shooter entered a common area at Marshall County High School in Benton shortly before 8 a.m. local time, pulled out a pistol and began firing at students, witnesses told local media.

The police were letter seen leading the shooter away in handcuffs and said the suspect will be charged with murder.

According to telegraph.co.uk, victims attested to the shooting.

“I can hear the gunshots. He was shooting in our group,” said Conkwright, showing where a bullet grazed his hand.”

“I see this guy draw from his side and he pulls out a pistol. I didn’t even know what was going on. And then it registered. About the time it registered, this guy was sitting here pulling the trigger into all of us,” student Bryson Conkwright.”

A Samaritan, Mitchell Garland who sheltered 50 to 100 students said he saw the Marshall County High students jumping into cars and running for their dear lives.

A half-dozen ambulances and numerous police cars converged on the school, along with officers in black fatigues carrying assault rifles.

Senator Mitch McConnell sent staffers and the state’s governor, Matt Bevin, rushed to the scene.

A 15-year-old girl was pronounced dead at the scene, and another 15-year-old boy died at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s trauma unit in Nashville, Bevin and hospital officials said.

Doctors said four of the other gunshot patients brought to Vanderbilt were expected to survive. Less severely wounded students were taken to other hospitals. Another five students suffered non-gunshot injuries, bringing the total number of injured to 17.

The shooter will be charged with murder and attempted murder, Mr Bevin said. Police did not release his identity, nor did they describe a motive.

“This is a wound that is going to take a long time to heal. For some in this community will never fully heal,” Mr Bevin said.

The attack marked the year’s first fatal school shooting according to data compiled by the Gun Violence Archive.

The governor expressed his shock that a high school shooting could “happen in a small, close-knit community like Marshall County.”

Marshall County High School is about 30 minutes from Heath High School in Paducah, Kentucky, where a 1997 mass shooting killed three and injured five.

See tweets by the Governor Matt Bevin:

The souls of Marshall County have been bruised and the fabric of the community has been torn, but the people of Benton, KY and the surrounding communities are strong…With faith in God and with reliance on friends and family, we will get through this dark day together…#WeAreKY

— Governor Matt Bevin (@GovMattBevin) January 23, 2018

A statement from Gov. Bevin regarding this morning’s events in Marshall County: pic.twitter.com/0n0cxgJkvi

— Governor Matt Bevin (@GovMattBevin) January 23, 2018

LATEST update from @GovMattBevin on the deadly school shooting in Kentucky:

-2 are dead, 15-year-old male & female

-19 injured, 14 of them have gunshot wounds

-Suspect is a 15-year-old male student who was apprehended at the scene & remains in custody https://t.co/3qC6uxcALP pic.twitter.com/nZg2lzl9NX

— CBS Evening News (@CBSEveningNews) January 23, 2018