(Reuters) - Four northern California students have been arrested for plotting to carry out a shooting at a high school, authorities said.

Authorities took four unidentified students into custody after they uncovered their plan to shoot and kill faculty members and students at Summerville High School, the Tuolumne County Sheriff's Office said on Saturday.

"The suspects plan was very detailed in nature and included names of would be victims, locations and the methods in which the plan was to be carried out," the sheriff's department said in a Facebook post.

High school officials reported to authorities on Wednesday that three students were planning to carry out an attack. During their investigation, detectives learned that a fourth student was involved in the plot, the sheriff's office said.

The announcement of the arrests came two days after a heavily-armed gunman killed nine people at a community college in Oregon, ranking it among the deadliest of dozens of U.S. mass shootings in the past two years.

Summerville High School is located in Tuolumne, California, about 140 miles (225 km) east of San Francisco.





(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien; editing by Susan Thomas)