Anderson County sheriff's deputies and investigators walk out of Townville Elementary School after a shooting in Townville, South Carolina, US, September 28, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

CHARLESTON, S.C. - A 14-year-old South Carolina boy shot and killed his father then drove to an elementary school where he opened fire with a handgun, wounding two children and a teacher before being tackled by a firefighter who held him for police, authorities said on Wednesday.

The suspect, whose name has not been released, was accused by police of shooting dead his 47-year-old father, Jeffrey DeWitt Osborne, then driving a pickup truck about 2 miles (3.2 km) to Townville Elementary School where he crashed into a fence surrounding the playground.

After the teenager began shooting, volunteer firefighter Jamie Brock pinned him down while staff led children to safety inside the building, Anderson County emergency services director Taylor Jones said in a news conference. Police arrived within 7 minutes of a teacher calling 911 to take the suspect into custody at the school in Anderson County, located near the Georgia state line about 100 miles (160 km) northeast of Atlanta. The shooter never entered the building, said Chief Deputy Keith Smith.

US schools have taken added security precautions since 2012 when a gunman shot dead 20 children and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

Brock, a 30-year veteran of the Townville Volunteer Fire Department, was hailed on social media as a hero and credited with preventing another school massacre.

"(He) was there in the hot scene and risked his life to mitigate this incident," Jones said. "He just used enough force to take him to the ground."

The shooting left a 6-year-old boy in critical condition and undergoing surgery, Scott Stoller, Anderson County's director of emergency services, told the Anderson Independent Mail.

The other boy and a female teacher were treated and released, said Ross Norton, a spokesman for AnMed Health Medical Center. Both boys were 6 years old, the Independent Mail reported.

One male student was shot in the leg and the other boy was shot in the foot. The female teacher was shot in the shoulder, authorities said. The shooter and victims were white.