Shooting at US high school, 2 wounded

Gunfire erupted on Thursday at a California high school in inland Kern County in a shooting in which two people were injured, county officials said, and media reports indicated the assailant had been arrested.

A Kern County sheriff's dispatcher confirmed the shooting at Taft Union High School but gave no other details, and the county fire chief said two people had been wounded, including one who was airlifted to a nearby hospital.

The other refused treatment. The shooting comes on the heels of a December rampage at a Connecticut elementary school in which a gunman killed 20 children and six teachers in an attack that shocked the nation and has fueled a heated national debate over gun control. In California, an ABC affiliate reported that sheriff's deputies were going room-by-room to secure the school in the city of Taft, about 100 miles northwest of Los Angeles. It said the shooter had been apprehended by police.

The station, 23ABC News, reported that some people had called the station from inside the school, where they were hiding in closets. It said parents were being urged to pick up their children from the school football field.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; additional reporting by Tim Gaynor; Writing By Cynthia Johnston; Editing by Paul Thomasch and Carol Bishopric)