A student shot dead a female classmate and wounded four others when he opened fire in the cafeteria of his Washington state high school on Friday, Oct 24, apparently after a fight with fellow students, officials said, according to Reuters.

The shooter, a homecoming prince at Marysville-Pilchuck High School, took his own life as his classmates scrambled to safety in the latest outburst of deadly violence at an American school.

A school district official, who declined to be named, said the shooter was Jaylen Fryberg, a freshman described by classmates and parents as a popular member of both the wrestling and football teams.

"He came up from behind and had a gun in his hand and he fired about eight bullets ... They were his friends so it wasn't just random," student Jordan Luton told CNN, adding that the gunman fired several more shots. "Then he turned and looked at me and my girlfriend ... and kind of gave us a smirk and turned around and then shot more bullets outside," Luton said.

Police would not confirm the gunman's identity or discuss possible motives for the shooting, but the school district official and several witnesses said he had been previously involved in a fight with another student. Students who knew Fryberg described him as outgoing and unlike the loner personality that is often associated with school shootings.

All of the victims of the shooting were under 18, and three of the wounded were in critical condition with gunshot wounds to the head, said Joanne Roberts, chief of medicine at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett. The fourth wounded victim suffered less serious injuries.

The violence at Marysville-Pilchuck High School, some 30 miles (48 km) north of Seattle, marked the latest in a series of deadly shooting rampages at American schools that have played a central role in a national debate over gun laws.

In 2012, a 20-year-old gunman entered Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and killed 20 children and six adults before taking his own life in one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history.