AT LEAST five people were killed and two children wounded Tuesday in a series of shootings that involved a school in rural Northern California.

The shooting broke out at a home in Tehama County and continued at the Rancho Tehama Elementary School, local authorities said.

Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston told San Francisco news network KCRA that the shooter was killed by police.

LATEST: 5 dead in shooting, number of casualties could rise. Watch LIVE interview with witness, hear latest from Tehama County Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston: https://t.co/PPA6wwRzqf #RanchoTehamashooting pic.twitter.com/xpGaw9MRle — Cecile Juliette KHSL (@CecileJuliette) November 14, 2017

He said he didn’t have the exact number of victims but knew of at least five deaths, including the gunman.

“I know that we have (flown) a number of students, I know that the school has been cleared, I know that we have the children that were attending school in a safe location at this time,” he said.

“It was very clear early on that we had a subject that was randomly picking targets,” Mr Johnston said.

While details about what led up to the shooting were unclear, Mr Johnston said authorities were told by neighbours that “there was a domestic violence incident” involving the suspected attacker.

He added that some 100 law enforcement officers had responded to the shooting.

There were at least five crime scenes, he said.

Of the injured children, one child was shot and wounded at the school. Another was shot in a truck “that was driving down the road along with a female adult”, Mr Johnston said, without identifying them or their relationship to the gunman.

A school official told Associated Press a “number” of students were shot and wounded.

A hospital spokeswoman said seven people, including children, were being treated for injuries. She refused to say what condition the victims were in.

Local man Brian Flint told the Record Searchlight newspaper in the city of Redding his neighbour — whom he knows only as Kevin — was the gunman.

He says he and his roommate told authorities that their neighbour was acting “crazy” and threatening them. He believed his roommate was among the victims.

Mr Flint told the newspaper he had been shooting “hundreds of rounds” from large magazines.

Investigators recovered a semi-automatic rifle and two handguns.