WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

A 14-YEAR-OLD student has been shot by police after brandishing a knife during a fight at a high school in Nevada.

The dramatic moment at Hug High School was filmed and posted to social media by fellow students in videos that have since been removed as police investigate the incident.

The graphic footage shows the young teen waving a large knife after a fight broke out with a fellow student. Police said a school officer asked him to drop it. When he refused, he was shot.

Video from the scene shows him lying on the ground just metres from the police officer in pain while someone says in the background “he just shot the kid”.

The officer then approaches him and turns the student onto his back. The student is now in hospital in a critical condition.

The boy’s father, Justin Clark, posted a message on Facebook to say his son had been shot and he would like some “public support in the battle with the city that’s sure to come from this”.

“My son was a superior athlete and has lost part of his lung, with alot more things that will b known over the next few days especially tomorrow,” he wrote (sic).

“Now he won’t have the ability that he had before, so he won’t have the chance to go to college or any other way to use this gift.”

It’s believed the family has engaged a lawyer.

Reno Police said the school has since been “rendered safe” by police and students have been released after the campus went into lockdown.

Police spokesman Tim Broadway said the officer has been placed on administrative leave and his identity remains unknown.

The terrifying incident shocked students who described being scared at the noise. One student, Madison Davidson, 14, said she heard people yelling but did not know what to think.

“I was kind of scared, but I didn’t think it was real,” Davidson told the Reno Gazette Journal. “Then people said it was real, and I just felt sick to my stomach.”

Another student Jonathan Montelongo, 17, said he didn’t believe the sound was a gunshot.

“They usually light firecrackers, and we didn’t think it was a gunshot,” he said. “Then we saw students running out, and we weren’t going to stay here. So we just started running.”

The fight broke out around 11:25am on Wednesday however students weren’t released until around 2pm. Local man Demick Laflamme said his son is friends with the boy who was shot and he had been “bullied for days”.

“He is my son’s best friend. He’s a victim and he’s only 15 years old,” Mr Laflamme said

“He’s a good kid ... All of his friends like him. Hell, even I love him and I don’t like kids.”

“The kids take bullying into their own hands, and he was shot for it,” he said.

Students also praised one of their teachers, Mr Bodine, online for trying to intervene.

“Shouts out to Mr Bodine for being the first one trying to stop it, risking his safety,” Ricki Santos wrote online.