Florida school shooting: Heartbreaking texts sent by students and parents reveal terror as gunman slaughtered 17 people

Students trapped inside a Florida high school as a gunman opened fire inside, killing 17 people, sent heartbreaking messages to their worried parents who waited outside.

Children inside the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland barricaded themselves in classrooms as the suspected gunman, Nikolas Cruz, opened fire with an AR-15 rifle.

As parents desperately waited to hear from their sons and daughters, texts show just how worried for their lives those inside were – with many writing words of love and thanks to their mums and dads in case they didn’t make it out alive.

Among the texts was one sent by a 14-year-old student, who told his parents that they shouldn’t come to the school in case they got hurt:

James Harrison sent a series of frantic messages to his stepfather Joe, telling him how scared he was but to not ring him in case the sound gave his position away to the shooter:

The student survived the shooting and told Fox News: “I’m still shaking a little bit, my heart’s still pounding, I still have a bunch of adrenaline because it was right outside my door, right outside the class door.

“I heard the shells of the bullets from the gun on the floor.”

Another 14-year-old student’s heartbreaking text to their parent read: “If I don’t make it I love you and I appreciated everything you did for me.”

Thankfully they also survived the shooting, according to WSVN 7 News.

One student named Hannah, who made it out of the school alive, frantically text her sister Kaitlin, revealing that someone in her class had been shot and killed.

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She told her sister that she was scared and asked her to tell their parents to come to the school.

She wrote: “I’m so scared Kaitlin. Tell them I love them so much.”

Twelve people were found dead inside the building, while two were found just outside the school and another was found dead in a nearby street.

Another 16 people were injured in the shooting, two of whom later died in hospital.

US President Donald Trump tweeted his condolences saying: “No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school.”