An 11-year-old boy has been arrested for attempted murder – after arriving at his school with a gun, knives and 400 rounds of ammunition.
Classmates at Frontier Middle School, in Vancouver, Washington State were held in lockdown for around two hours while police dealt with the boy.
The boy said he heard voices telling him to shoot another student for calling his friend 'gay'. The voices told him to then turn the gun on himself, police said.
The pupil faces charges of attempted assault and other crimes after bringing the gun, along with kitchen knives, to the school.
Kim Kapp, a Vancouver Police Department spokeswoman, said: "He told officers he had heard a voice in his head telling him to shoot another student. Fortunately, everything was found very early into this situation."
No-one was hurt despite the fact he was heavily armed with a handgun, 400 bullets and multiple knives.
The arrest came just two days after another US school shooting, in Nevada. A 14-year-old killed his maths teacher - an Afghanistan veteran who tried to disarm him - and wounded two fellow pupils before committing suicide.
One parent, Rashida Willard, said: "It's scary, especially hearing about the recent school shootings and stuff. So it's scary to know your kids are in the school and we don't know any information."