Teenage student wounded in Atlanta school shooting

Atlanta policemen stands at the entrance to Price Middle School following a shooting at the school in Atlanta, Georgia, January 31, 2013.

ATLANTA (Reuters) - A 14-year-old student was wounded on Thursday in a shooting outside a middle school in Atlanta and police said another student was arrested in the latest outbreak of gun violence in a U.S. school.

The afternoon shooting occurred outside Price Middle School in Atlanta, Georgia. Neither the wounded student nor the suspected shooter were identified by authorities.

Atlanta Public Schools Superintendent Erroll Davis and Police Chief George Turner said at a news conference that multiple gunshots were fired from a small-caliber handgun outside the main school building.

One of the gunshots grazed the 14-year-old on the back of the neck but his injury was not life-threatening. He was expected to be released from hospital by Thursday evening, Davis said.

The shooter was disarmed and taken into custody minutes after the incident by an off-duty Atlanta police officer, Turner said. He said the off-duty police officer, who was armed, works at Price Middle School as a so-called resource officer, providing security.

Davis said a teacher's aide was slightly injured in the confusion that followed the shooting, but he offered no further details.

Police said they did not know how the shooter got his gun or what his motive was, but Turner said charges would be filed against him.

A national debate has raged over gun control in the United States since the shooting deaths of 20 children and six adults at a Connecticut elementary school in December. (Reporting by David Beasley; Additional reporting by Kevin Gray; Editing by David Adams, Tom Brown and Cynthia Johnston)