A 15-YEAR-OLD student in Texas was injured in a shooting in her high school cafeteria today and a 16-year-old male, also a student at the school, was taken into custody, sheriff’s officials said.

The girl was airlifted to Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas following the shooting in the town of Italy, 70 kilometres south of Dallas, said Sgt. Joe Fitzgerald of the Ellis County Sheriff’s Office.

Sgt. Fitzgerald said he did not know how many students were in the cafeteria at Italy High School when the shooting happened at about 7:50 a.m.

Lee Joffre, superintendent of the Italy Independent School District, which has about 600 students, said the shooter left the building immediately after opening fire.

Sheriff’s officials say the boy was found and taken into custody without incident.

The relationship between the victim and shooter is unknown, as is the girl’s condition, or whether the suspect had any previous disciplinary issues at the school.

When district officials became aware there was an active shooter, the district “immediately took action to get our students in a safe position,” said Mr Joffre.

The district is now working to reunite parents with their children and to make sure grief counseling was available for students.

“This is a trying time for our community and our school,” he said.

At the time of the shooting students were moved, under guard, into the school’s domed stadium.

Italy High School, which has students in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades, had 281 students enrolled last year according to the Texas Tribune.

The Ellis County sheriff’s office announced the shooting on Twitter.

In a Twitter update the sheriff’s office said that the shooter had been identified and that the “shooter is in custody”. It later added that a media centre would be set up at the parking lot of a local church so that media could follow the unfolding story.

Italy, which promotes itself as “The Biggest Little Town In Texas,” has about 2,000 residents and is located just off Interstate 35 between Dallas and Waco.