The body of the gunman is carried from a school house in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania.
Last Update: Tuesday, October 3, 2006. 1:32pm (AEST)

Fourth girl dies after US school shooting

A fourth girl has died of her injuries after this morning's school shooting in the United States' state of Pennsylvania.

The 32-year-old gunman singled out schoolgirls at a one-room Amish Community school house.

He shot three dead and another has since died, while seven others remain critically injured.

The heavily armed gunman, identified by authorities as Charles Carl Roberts, 32, had ordered the boys and some adults out of the classroom before opening fire on the girls.

Roberts, who was not Amish, had dropped his own three school-aged children at their bus stop in the morning, showing no sign of the rampage to come.

Commissioner Jeffrey Miller of Pennsylvania state police said Roberts had left a rambling suicide note and letter to his wife and children.

The letter referred to an event 20 years ago for which he sought revenge, and he planned for a lengthy siege.

"He was angry with life and was angry at God ... There may have been a loss of a child at some point in his life," Commissioner Miller said.

The Georgetown School classroom had 26 students aged six to 13.

Commissioner Miller said after Roberts ordered the 15 boys and some adults to leave, the victims were shot "at close range, execution style, firing into the back of the head".

One of the dead was believed to be a teacher's aide.

When discussing the state of the wounded victims, Commissioner Miller said, "it would be a miracle if we were somehow able to have no further loss of life".

The tragedy stunned this peaceful, largely Amish community some 100 kilometres west of Philadelphia, where descendants of settlers of Swiss-German descent have preserved a religious lifestyle that shuns aspects of modern life like cars and electricity.

It is the third deadly school shooting in a week and the Bush Administration has called together education and law enforcement groups to discuss school violence.

- Reuters