FLORIDA'S TRAGIC FLAMES

17 KILLED IN Florida school shooting by former student.

AUTHORITIES in Florida could offer no explanation Wednesday night as to why a former student armed with an AR-15 rifle-

Opened fire at a high school earlier that day, killing at least 17 people.

Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel identified the gunman as Nikolas Cruz, 19, a former student at  Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland who had been expelled for ''disciplinary reasons'', but was currently enrolled in Broward County Public School.

Cruz, whose fellow students described him as ''troubled'', was arrested without incident in the nearby town of Coral Springs after the Valentine's Day rampage and taken to hospital with minor injuries, the Sheriff said.

He had mixed in with students fleeing the school before being caught, officials said.

''We have already began to dissect his website and things on social media that he was on and some of the things..........are very, very disturbing,'' Israel said.

''If a person is predisposed to commit such a horrific act and event by going to a school and shooting people - there's not anybody or not a lot law enforcement can do about it.''

Israel said both students and adults had been killed, 12 of whom have now been identified.

Fifteen were people at the school itself and 17 were taken to hospital, two of whom died of their wounds, the sheriff's office said.

One of those killed was a football coach, and one student injured was a deputy sheriff's son.

''This is a terrible day for Parkland,'' Israel said, speaking of the city of about 30,000 people, located 50 miles [80 kms]  north of Miami.

The World Students Society extends its deepest condolences to the school and to all the families affected by this terrible tragedy.