Aurora shooting: Six high school students in hospital after suspects open fire at Colorado park

Central High School students were kept inside Monday after a shooting at adjacent Nome Park in Aurora

(9News/NBC)

Six teenagers were hospitalised Monday following a shooting at a park in Aurora, Colorado, police said.

All six victims were students at Central High School, which is adjacent to the park, Aurora Police Chief Vanessa Wilson said at a press conference just hours after the shooting. Five were between the ages of 14 and 17 and were taken to the hospital by emergency services, while the sixth, age 18, “self-transported.”

She said multiple suspects remained at large and were believed to have been travelling via car and on foot. Gang units from Aurora and Denver were investigating along with Major Crimes, she said.

Relatives of all six teenagers have been contacted, and their injuries, while serious, are not considered life-threatening.

“This is very concerning right now,” Chief Wilson said. “I have one child in emergency surgery. I want to thank the school resources officers that were first on scene. They applied life-saving measures in the form of a tourniquet for the individual that’s in surgery now.”

She said multiple calibres were used in the assault, which happened while the victims were believed to be congregating. It was not immediately clear why they were in the park during school hours but Chief Wilson said all six and their families were cooperating with police.

Central High School was secured following the shooting and police said officials would be sending parents information on dismissal protocols.

Chief Wilson urged students and anyone else to come forward with information about the attack.

“Obviously, this is a very concerning incident for the city, as well as for this nation,” she said. “I think we’re seeing it’s a public health crisis, really, when we think about gun violence.”

She added: “When I got the call, my heart dropped ... I think, enough is enough.”

One witness reported hearing 30 to 50 gunshots as kids scattered, according to FOX31 - which also reported that Nome park had been the site of three aggravated assaults already this year, including one involving a gun. Three other such assaults were recorded across the street, the station found.

Monday’s Aurora shooting comes nearly nine months after 10 people were killed in a mass shooting at a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, just 34 miles away.

Aurora was also the site of a mass shooting in 2012 when James Holmes dressed up as the Joker and killed 12 people in a movie theatre.

One of the most infamous school shootings to ever take place occurred less than half an hour away at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado in 1999, resulting in the deaths of 13 victims.