Students are escorted out of Saugus High School after reports of a shooting on November 14, 2019, in Santa Clarita, California. Photo: Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP

The 16-year-old male suspect was taken into custody and is in the hospital in "grave condition" from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.

Detectives reviewed video from the scene which showed the gunman in the quad of Saugus High School in Santa Clarita when he took a gun from his backpack, shot five people and then shot himself in the head, authorities said. The early morning school shooting was on the suspect's birthday, authorities said.

The surviving victims are a 14-year-old girl and a 15-year-old girl, officials said.

Terrified students barricaded in classrooms before they fled the campus to search for their concerned parents, who had gathered in the streets.

"I just started running," sophomore Brooklyn Moreno said. "There was girls falling in front of me and I tried to help them up, then just kept running 'cause I didn't want to get hurt, either."

 

Students are escorted out of Saugus High School after reports of a shooting, Nov. 14, 2019, in Santa Clarita, California. Photo: Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP 

The suspect's girlfriend and his mother are speaking with detectives, authorities said.

The shooting was reported at 7:38 a.m. local time during what's called "Zero Period," which is before the school day officially begins at 8 a.m. and is often used for extracurricular classes, police said.

Students are evacuated from Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, Calif., near Los Angeles after reports of a shooting, Nov. 14, 2019. Photo: KKTV

The teen said he grabbed his metal water bottle to use as a weapon as they all hid under their desks, crying and holding each other.

Trowbridge said during shooting drills he had practiced putting a book in front of his chest to protect against a fatal shot, but he didn’t have anything big enough nearby.

Choir teacher Kaitlin Holt said one girl, shot in the hip and shoulder, was rushed into her classroom by other students. Holt told ABC News she gave the girl first aid and called 911.

Moreno said she was in the school's quad when she heard what she thought was a balloon popping. She took off running.

"I never thought this would happen at my school," Moreno told ABC Los Angeles station KABC. "I'm still kinda in shock right now. I’ve been shaking and crying a lot -- I’m an emotional wreck."

Jeff Turner, a father of three Saugus High School students, said his daughter "was beside herself, hysterical.”

She "thought she should have stayed and helped the kids she saw shot, feeling terrified and guilty all at once," Turner told ABC News. "I broke down in tears. Had to pull myself out of it to help her."

As the search for the suspect was unfolding earlier on Thursday, other schools were placed on lockdown and officials urged those who live in the area to lock their doors.

Misty Wolf, a Saugus High School graduate whose 16-year-old daughter goes to a nearby school, said they were just arriving when her daughter's school was placed on lockdown.

"We were all getting there and parents heard shots -- or what we thought were shots," Wolf told ABC News. "The nice guy who waves us in the lot every morning started shouting at the kids walking to get out of the way get up the hill. We were all trying to get out. People were confused."

"Having my kid, who is already dealing with things in life, being scared because I told her to duck down because they don't know where the shooter is -- is hard," Wolf said. "There was another [school lockdown] a few years ago and she never wanted to leave her classroom after it. I'm worried that this will make her not want to be at school because she doesn't feel safe."

He asked for unanimous consent to pass the legislation dubbed the "Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019" that would establish new background check requirements for firearm transfers between private parties. The House approved of the measure in February in a 240-90 vote.

His fellow Democratic Connecticut senator, Richard Blumenthal, was in the middle of his remarks on gun violence when he was handed a note informing him of the reported shooting.

In August, the William S. Hart Union High School District, which includes Saugus High School, voted to extend a contract for school safety for another year for $1.05 million, local newspaper, The Santa Clarita Valley Signal, reported. Schools in the district began holding lockdown drills several years ago, a public information officer for the school district told Santa Clarita radio station KHTS in 2018 after the Parkland shooting in Florida.

ABC News' Olivia Rubin, Matt Gutman, Mariam Khan, Ella Torres, Jesse Convertino, Kelly McCarthy and Julia Jacobo contributed to this report.