Police: Student with gun who took school hostages in custody

West Virginia Police and school officials help parents reunite with their children at Philip Barbour High School following a "hostage-type situation" on Aug 25, 2015, in Philippi, West Virginia, US. [Photo/IC]

PHILIPPI - A 14-year-old boy held 29 students and a teacher at gunpoint in a West Virginia high school classroom Tuesday afternoon before he released them after negotiations and surrendered, authorities said. No injuries were reported.

The student took a pistol into a second-floor classroom Tuesday afternoon at Philip Barbour High School in the north-central part of the state, State Police Lt. Michael Baylous said in a statement.

It was the ninth day of the new school year in Philippi, a town of some 3,000 residents located about 115 miles (185 kilometers) south of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Authorities said the episode began after 1 p.m. and police had brought the situation under control by about 3:30 pm though they didn't immediately say just how long hostages were held.

Barbour County Schools Superintendent Jeffrey Woofter credited the teacher for maintaining control when classes were about to change and praised the Philippi police chief for talking the suspect into giving up.

Woofter said the teacher talked the boy into not allowing the next group of students to enter the classroom.

"The teacher did a miraculous job, calming the student, maintaining order in the class," Woofter said, declining to identify the teacher by name.

Students who opened the door to enter for the next class were asked to leave. Those students went across the hall to alert another teacher, who then alerted school officials. An assistant principal raced to the hallway outside the classroom, then called the office asking that police be alerted, Woofter said.

Kayla Smith, a 17-year-old senior, said initially no one in her classroom in another area of the school took a "code red" warning seriously.

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