Suspected Iowa school shooter Dylan Butler injured three people, including the principal, before turning the gun on himself

The suspected Iowa school shooter who injured three people, including the principal, before turning the gun on himself has been identified as a high school student.

Dylan Butler, a senior at Perry High School, was named as the suspected shooter by a local news outlet WHO 13. Police have not confirmed the identification.

One of the three injured was the school's principal, Dan Marburger, who was rushed to hospital and is currently undergoing surgery for his gunshot wounds.

The other two injured were reported to be students.

Hours before the shooting at 7:37 a.m., Butler posted a TikTok posing in what appeared to be the school bathroom, with the caption, “Now we wait.”

The senior made a strange face as a blue duffel bag sat on the floor of the stall.

Butler posted the TikTok selfie with the song “Stray Bullet” playing in the background.

In December, just weeks before the shooting, Butler posted another video to the same social media account of himself sitting on children's playground equipment with a friend and pretending to be in a gunfight with sticks.

Butler is 'shot' by the stick and falls down the children's slide.

On Thursday morning, hundreds of emergency services were on the scene, 25 miles northwest of Des Moines. Ambulances, police units, air ambulances and firefighters were called to the school at 7.37am.

The Dallas County Sheriff's Office confirmed the shooting, which occurred on the first day of classes. The FBI Omaha Des Moines was on scene, as was the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

County Sherriff Adam Infante said at an 11 a.m. news conference that police officers arrived at the high school seven minutes after the first call was made.

First responders found “multiple gunshot victims” inside the school, but Infante said they are still working to confirm the number of victims. He did not confirm whether anyone had died.

WHO 13 said the gunman is believed dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Adam Infante said there were few people in the building at the time of the shooting because the school day had not yet started.

Infante said there is no further threat to the community. They have identified the shooter but have not confirmed whether he is alive or deceased.

The sheriff said, “The community is safe. We're working backwards now to see what happened.”

Today is the first day after winter break for the 1,785 students attending the Perry Community School District.

The number of potential injuries and victims has not yet been confirmed by police, but ABC reports that one person was killed in the shooting.

Tearful parents went to the McCreary Community Building to be reunited with their children after the shooting this morning.

Carlos, a student at Perry High School, told WHO 13 that he and his friends initially thought the “loud bangs” were part of a prank – before a teacher began yelling at the students to “go away, go away, go away '.

He said: 'I heard a few bangs but they weren't loud. We saw a lot of people running away. We thought it was a joke or something. We didn't think it was real at first.'

Erica Jolliff said her daughter, who was in ninth grade, reported being rushed off school grounds at 7:45 a.m.

Distraught, Jolliff was still searching for her sixth-grade son Amir an hour later.

“I just want to make sure he's safe and okay,” Jolliff said. “They won't tell me anything.”

Zander Shelley, 15, was sitting in a hallway waiting for the first day of school after recess to start when he heard gunshots and burst into a classroom, said his father, Kevin Shelley.

The teenager was grazed twice and hid in the classroom before texting his father at 7.36am.

Kevin Shelley, who drives a garbage truck, told his boss to run. “It was the most scared I've been in my entire life,” he said.

Rachael Kares, an 18-year-old senior, was practicing with a jazz band when she and her bandmates heard what she described as four gunshots, some distance apart.

“We all just jumped,” Kares said. “My band teacher looked at us and yelled, 'Run!' So we ran.”

Kares and many others from the school were running past the soccer field when she heard people shouting, “Go away! Out!'

She said she heard more shots as she ran, but didn't know how many. She was more concerned about getting home to her three-year-old son.

“At that point, I had no choice but to leave because I had to get home with my son,” she said.

Ava Augustus, a senior at Perry High School, broke down in tears as she remembered what she saw this morning. Ava said she saw blood everywhere, glass on the floor, and saw a girl being taken from the room with gunshot wounds to her leg.

She said: 'I'm running and you see glass everywhere, blood on the floor. I walk to my car and they take a girl out of the room who has been shot in the leg.'

The first shots were reported at 7:37 a.m. Thursday.

Perry Elementary School and Perry Middle School – which are located near the high school – were evacuated at 8:32 a.m. and buildings were evacuated.

There is no active threat in that area. The high school is the focus of the investigation, which was cleared by a team of officers at 8:27 a.m.

Multiple victims were transported to MercyOne Des Moines Medical Center, a hospital spokesperson confirmed.

Two gunshot victims are being treated at Iowa Methodist Medical Center.

Just after 9:30 a.m. local time, police issued an on-the-spot warning for people living in Woodward-Granger, a nearby community, but it was quickly lifted.