WINDER, Ga. — An unknown number of people were injured and a suspect was arrested in a shooting at a Georgia high school Wednesday. The scene was chaotic, with officers storming the campus and students taking cover in the football stadium.

According to authorities, one suspect has been arrested.

“What you see behind us is something evil,” Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith said during a brief news conference outside Apalachee High School. He declined to provide additional details about the people injured in the shooting.

Jacob King, a sophomore American football student, said he fell asleep in his world history class after a morning practice when he heard about 10 gunshots.

King said he didn’t believe the shooting was real until he heard an officer yell at someone to put down their gun. King said that when his class was led outside, he saw officers protecting a wounded student.

Ashley Enoh was at home Wednesday morning when she received a text from her brother, a senior at Apalachee High School:

“Just so you know, I love you,” he texted her.

When she asked in the family group chat what was going on, he said there was a shooter at school. Enoh’s younger sister, a junior at the school, said she had heard about the shooter and that everything was on lockdown.

Authorities had few details available. They said the call came in shortly before 10:30 a.m., when “officers from multiple law enforcement agencies and fire/EMS personnel were dispatched to the high school in reference to a reported active shooter,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.

“Casualties have been reported, but details on the number of casualties or their condition are not available at this time,” the statement said.

Helicopter footage from WSB-TV showed dozens of police and emergency personnel surrounding the school in Barrow County, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northeast of Atlanta.

When Erin Clark, 42, got a text from her son Ethan, a high school senior, that there was an active shooter, she ran from her job at the Amazon warehouse to school. The two texted “I love you,” and Clark said she prayed for her son as she drove to the high school.

With the main road to the school blocked, Clark parked and ran with other parents. Parents were then led to the football field. In the midst of the chaos, Clark found Ethan sitting in the stands.

Clark said her son was writing a paper in class when he first heard the shots. Her son then worked with his classmates to barricade the door and hide.

“I’m so proud of him for doing that,” she said. “He was so brave.”

The students had only started the new school year a month ago when the shooting took place on Wednesday.

“I’m scared to send him back,” she said. “I don’t know what to do.”

Traffic to the school was at a standstill for over a mile as parents rushed to their children.

“I have deployed all available state resources to respond to the incident at Apalachee High School and urge all Georgians to join my family in praying for the safety of those in our classrooms, both in Barrow County and across the state,” Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said in a statement.

“We will continue to work with local, state and federal partners as we gather information and further respond to this situation,” Kemp added.

In a statement, the FBI Atlanta office said: “FBI Atlanta is aware of the current situation at Apalachee High School in Barrow County. Our agents are on scene working with and supporting local law enforcement.”

The White House said President Joe Biden has been briefed on the shooting by his homeland security adviser, Liz Sherwood-Randall, and that the administration will coordinate with federal, state and local officials as it receives more information.

Apalachee High School has about 1,900 students, according to data from Georgia education officials. It became Barrow County’s second-largest public high school when it opened in 2000, according to the Barrow County School System. It is named after the Apalachee River on the southern edge of Barrow County.

The shooting had repercussions in Atlanta, where school patrols in that city were stepped up, authorities said. Increased school patrols would be added to Atlanta “for the remainder of the day out of an abundance of caution,” Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said.

By JEFF AMY Associated Press