EMSDETTEN, Germany (Reuters):

A masked man wearing explosives and brandishing rifles opened fire after storming a school in the western German town of Emsdetten yesterday, wounding at least 11 people before he committed suicide.

Police identified the man as an 18-year-old former pupil at the Scholl secondary school where the attack took place. He was known to authorities and due in court today for weapons violations, they said.

German television broadcast pictures they said came from the man's website, showing him standing in a forest in camouflaged military fatigues and brandishing a high-tech rifle.

Police had blocked the website, which they said contained a note warning of his plans, by mid-afternoon.

"Based on the note, he appears to have acted out of general frustration and a feeling his life had lost all meaning," state prosecutor Wolfgang Schwer told a news conference.

"Everything suggests he was acting alone and not linked to broader extremist groups."

The prosecutor said at least 11 people within the school had been wounded by the man. Five of the wounded - three boys, a girl and a janitor - received gunshots to the stomach, arms, legs or hands, but none of the injuries were life-threatening.

Smoke bombs

Sixteen police who stormed the school were being treated for smoke inhalation after the man detonated smoke bombs.

Police blocked off the school in Emsdetten, a town of 35,000 near the Dutch border, to search the grounds. Dozens of students and parents, some of them crying, comforted each other nearby.

Hans Volkmann, who led the police operation, said local authorities had received an emergency call reporting shots at the school at 9:28 a.m. and arrived on the scene within minutes.

Commandos entered the building shortly after 10 a.m. and evacuated four children before finding the man dead on the second floor.