A FLORIDA high school student shot and wounded a classmate overnight as students around the country staged walkouts to protest gun violence.

The Sheriff’s Office for Marion County said the suspect was in custody following the early morning shooting at Forest High School in Ocala, Florida.

The Ocala Star Banner newspaper said one student shot another in the ankle.

“At this time we have one person injured and they are being treated by medics,” the Sheriff’s Office said.

The Ocala shooting came as students nationwide, including those at Forest High School, walked out of classes to mark the 19th anniversary of the 1999 school shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado which left 13 people dead.

Many of the demonstrators wore orange, a colour that has come to represent the movement against gun violence, as they observed a 13-second silence in honour of those killed at Columbine.

“I’m trying to get an education, but I still have a small fear that someone will come in with a gun,” said Ayanna Rhodes, 14, who walked out of Washington International School to join hundreds of local students in front of the US Capitol.

“It’s an issue that’s been in this country for a long time.”

Two gunman went on a shooting rampage at the Colorado high school in 1999, leaving 12 students and a teacher dead before killing themselves. The massacre stunned the nation but since then, school shootings have become commonplace

Officials at Columbine urged those schools planning a walkout to perform a “day of service”, something those at the Colorado school have done every year since the massacre.

The walkout has been organised by students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 14 students and three adult staff members were killed by a troubled former classmate on February 14.

Students at Parkland have started a pen pal program with teachers and students from Columbine as they deal with the reality of becoming part of an ever growing number of schools where gun violence has occurred.

The Parkland students have spearheaded a grassroots campaign for gun control which included marches by hundreds of thousands of Americans on March 24.

In Washington, students from area high schools planned to rally at the White House on Friday and march on Congress to demand action on gun control from legislators.