paul ryan, for refusing to discuss gun legislation. the president reacted to the florida killings by saying school safety would be his top priority, he talked about mental health but he failed to address calls from congress for a review of gun laws. some experts have said that the attack might have been thwarted if the suspect, nikolas cruz, had been barred from obtaining firearms. our correspondent aleem maqbool reports from parkland. police radio: we don't know where the shooter is! for hours, children at a high school found themselves in a combat zone. police radio: 17 julia five, i have the gunshot victim. there was mayhem and bloodshed as a gunman stalked its corridors. shots can be heard close by as these terrified pupils sheltered in a classroom fearing for their own lives. he went up and down the hallwayjust banging and shooting into the classrooms. he shot through my door and broke the window. then all of a sudden we heard one of our student government teachers say, "run as fast as you can," and we heard a gunshot. 17—year—old kevin mizen, originally from coventry, moved to florida three years ago and is a student at the school. he was barricaded in a storage cupboard for two hours during the shooting. we heard the door to our room being unlocked. we heard someone say, "police, police". there were two different people. we didn't know how many shooters there were. we didn't know if it was police. i remember my teacher turning to me and saying, "what do we do?" that's terrifying. she opened the door and the relief when you realised it was these guys in military getup holding pistols and assault rifles. i have friends who have been killed, friends who have been shot. how can this be real? this is a school i go to. i'm watching video footage and it's my friends going out with their hands up. police did finally get to every classroom. the fear palpable. police! all whimper put your hands up. survivors were ushered through the corridors with hands on their heads, police marksman watching closely in case a gunman was still among them. the first of those identified as having been killed aaron feis, a football coach and security guard at the school. in the coming days, we'll learn details of the young victims too. at the very same school he attacked. he's someone who used racial slurs, who was just awful to other people. i'm sure he was bullied himself by some, but he was the type of person where people were scared to bully because they knew something could happen. they just didn't think this would happen. it makes me angry because we all knew him, we all knew that there was a potential for something to go wrong. it just sucks that we couldn't stop him. these thoughts are the type with which no children should have to burden themselves. but in a country where there have been more than 200 school shootings in less than five years, more and more are being taught by such horrors. aleem maqbool, parkland, florida. ivy schamis is a teacher at the marjory stoneman douglas high school. iv, know you and your students have been through the most terrible time, i can't tell you how much we appreciate you taking the time to talk to us now. you're a teacher there and you were in the thick of all this, what happened? you were on the first floor of the newest buildings on this big new campus, 13 buildings on this big new campus, 13 buildings in all, then suddenly you hear rapid gunfire. what happens next? yes, sir. iwas hear rapid gunfire. what happens next? yes, sir. i was teaching a history of the holocaust class actually, how to combat hate, i was in the end of the lesson and all of a sudden we hear pop, pop, pop, very loud, i had never heard gunshots before but it was unmistakable. the stu d e nts before but it was unmistakable. the students were mostly seniors in the class, they were incredible, they instantaneously went down to the ground and instantly were looking for cover. we had been practising a little bit of these drills but we didn't know it would happen the way it did. they went to the perimeter of the class and tried to hide behind... they had file cabinets, the teacher desk, anywhere they could hide and within seconds the gunman shot his automatic weapon right into the panel on the door and shot into the classroom and hit some of my students. when you say hit some of your students, how are they? two of them have passed away and several of them were injured. ovy, i am so several of them were injured. ovy, i am so sorry, several of them were injured. ovy, i am so sorry, thank you for talking to us, if you need to bow out of it that's absolutely understandable —— ivy. i understand the gunman then goes across the corridor to wear your best friend was teaching? yes, sir, he could have easily put his arm into the panel of the door he shot out but miraculously he did not and he kept going. unfortunately he went and he kept going. unfortunately he we nt a cross and he kept going. unfortunately he went across the hall to my friend and he did the same thing in her classroom and some students were injured and deceased as well. then he shot in the hallway and our coach and securities specialist, aaron fights, he made his way to the third floor and continued there. aaron fights threw himself in front of stu d e nts fights threw himself in front of students and was killed, he gave his life? students and was killed, he gave his life ? - - students and was killed, he gave his life? -- feis. yes, i understand that's what he did. what's going through your mind when this was going on? i was very frightened for my students, we were all huddled together. it was very chaotic so it was hard to know who was injured at the time. we were being very quiet because we were afraid he was going to come back. we were holding onto each other and the students were extremely mature, they were incredible, i just want them to extremely mature, they were incredible, ijust want them to know how incredible these marjory is the children were, they were holding onto each other, cuddling each other, telling each other to be quiet, the ones injured in the corner where shielding themselves we re corner where shielding themselves were textbooks and with laptop cards, they did everything they could to protect each other. we were very frightened, the kids were shaking. az, as i'm sure you know there are people who say all this is an argument for more guns, gun sales go an argument for more guns, gun sales 9° up an argument for more guns, gun sales go up when this kind of thing happens —— ivy. there are people who say teachers should be armed, should you have been armed? 0h say teachers should be armed, should you have been armed? oh my gosh, no, i'm afraid of guns, i don't think anyone should have guns and i don't think this kid should have had an assault rifle either. know, if no one had guns then teachers would not need those guns so i do not believe in guns. ivy, everyone's hearts will go out to you again. thank you so much. prayers for those students, please. absolutely. greg pittman is a social studies teacher at the marjory stoneman douglas high school. he teaches american history and is at his home now in oakland park. thanks for talking to us, what did you go through yesterday? again, i just want to say thank you for having me and having the opportunity to tell what occurred. that day, as you may have heard and may know, in the morning we had a fire drill, as we periodically do at least once a month, went through the regular routine as we normally do it, i'm teaching american history and we're doing a review for world war two and needless to say we had finished the holocaust section for this, like ivy. at 2:20 p.m., the school gets out at 2:a0 p.m., the fire alarm goes off, and i'm thinking, what is happening, this has got to be a kid pulling it, we already practised in the morning, we never do it at that time of day because the buses are coming, students are leaving, it's the wrong time of day for the staff, so something is wrong or the culinary department has done something again, which they do periodically. then i said we have to go to the kids, we practice monthly or more where we go for different types of drills, for a fire drill we go to zone six on the west side of the building and the campus, ivy is in the 1200 building, used to be there on the third floor in that building for the first nine years i was there and the last couple of yea rs was there and the last couple of years i've been in a building a bit west. we moved the kids, as we should, to our zone, which is a bit west of where she is, probably 1000 feet or so. forgive me... that's something i wanted to ask you about, you hear this code red, you hear gunshots, you know that can only mean one thing so you are with a bunch of kids trying to get over walls and fences, they must be tremendously worried about what's happening. is it right some of the stu d e nts happening. is it right some of the students were getting live stream from their friends students were getting live stream from theirfriends on students were getting live stream from their friends on their phones about what was happening even closer to the killing? correct. at the very beginning we still thought it was a regular fire beginning we still thought it was a regularfire drill. we didn't beginning we still thought it was a regular fire drill. we didn't hear code red, when we went out it was still a fire drill, then it went to code red and another teacher we spoke with said they heard 5 . so we “t:% we re -'f ff] if iii"; ' . z.” us, we move them ha we , mo"e them ’ h??? and 55 a5 5.5 move them ; 7 7 h??? and then 55 move them ; 7 7 we z 7 ,,,,, toa to a shopping plaza § a lot of later saw £— the 1. go a”, it;t1.!a155 the 1. go a”, it.r1.1.!a1 the the 1 i go a”, it.r1.1.!a1 the a mental and he's talking about issue and he's talking abaatcaming the issue and he's talking abeutceming the area and visiting the school. to the area and visiting the school. what would you want to say to him? what would you want to say to him? what i would want to say is two or three things, one, guns are a large pa rt three things, one, guns are a large part of the problem. these automatic weapons, these assault weapons, this kid at 18 can buy one, he can't buy a beer oran kid at 18 can buy one, he can't buy a beer or an alcoholic beverage until he's 21. he can't drink and get a card to kill himself but he can buy an assault weapon to kill 100 people in a couple of minutes if he were to shoot that many with his capability —— a car. the president, congress, senators, i called one of our senators from florida, senator rubio, multiple times today, told them who i am on voice—mail, they have yet to call back, which they never do. he's the same party as the president. they need to start protecting the gun industry, these automatic weapons we do not need, they are created for the military, we aren't in a war environment, the second amendment doesn't entitle you to that and one of the reasons we had a revolution with you is life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and we are not being afforded our rights to that because this is the 18th mass shooting in the us at a school this year! none of these should have occurred, none of these should have occurred, none of these should have occurred, none of these should have occurred. after las vegas they talked about a bump stock, which is something they can add to the gun to make it an automatic weapon, it is legal. the president and also the head of the congress indicated that he would do something about it, they've done absolutely nothing about this, they just hope it will all blow over, they will keep taking all this money from the gun lobby, the gun industry and protect the guns. that's all they're and protect the guns. that's all they‘ re interested and protect the guns. that's all they're interested in, protecting they're interested in, protecting the guns. they‘ re they're interested in, protecting the guns. they're not interested in protecting students and teachers. in addition we need additional money for additional personnel and security precautions at not only our schools... 0ur security precautions at not only our schools... our school is a public schools... our school is a public school and the administrators do a greatjob school and the administrators do a great job with what they've school and the administrators do a greatjob with what they've got but every school is strapped for money and wejust every school is strapped for money and we just had every school is strapped for money and wejust had a $1.5 every school is strapped for money and we just had a $1.5 trillion tax cut, they're going to have to borrow the money for it and the middle class will have to pay for it and now they're looking at cuts to mental health, the president is talking about mental health, so why is the president cutting mental health programmes? this is a big argument as you know, there are other sides to the argument as well, i can't go into them right now but we have a development in new york i need to bring to people. thank you so much for talking to us, i hope you get the chance to talk to the president. i hope so too, thanks for having us. some breaking news now and authorities in new york say they may have thwarted a bomb attack on a school in upper manhattan. two males, including a teacher who recently quit the school, have been charged with explosives offences. the new york police department says it comes after a tip off in december and the discovery of bomb—making instructions on the teacher's laptop in january. deputy commissionerjohn miller's just finished telling media about raids carried out at the suspects' home. in a; s mim1757 by the fbi and charged as you see in complaint, with possession of the complaint, with possession of explosive precursors and giving explosives to minors. the charges have to do, as is outlined in the complaint, with allegations that at least two students who were present in the apartment in the explosive blackpowder from fireworks, harvesting them from fireworks, and putting them into separate containers. as well as the explosive materials and what appeared to be simulated weapons that were found in the course of the search, there was a diary, appearing to belong to toro's brother that had no patience in it about something called operation flash. statement contained in the diary about discarding and doing away with physical evidence. deputy commissionerjohn miller there, we will have more information than we can get it. —— when we can get it. stay with us on bbc news. still to come: the biggest show on earth — the chinese television spectacular that welcomes in the lunar new year. nine years and 15,000 deaths after going into afghanistan, the last soviet troops were finally coming home. the withdrawal in good order, but the army defeated in the task it had been sent to perform. malcolm was murdered. that has a terrible effect on the morality of the people. i'm terrified of the repercussions in the streets. one wonders who is next. as the airlift got under way, there was no letup in the eruption itself. lava streams from a vent low in the crater into the sea east of the island, away from the town for the time being, but it could start flowing again at any time. the russians heralded their new—generation space station with a spectacular night launch. they called it mir, the russian for peace. this is bbc news. the latest headlines: nikolas cruz, the teenager accused of killing 17 people at his former florida high school, appears in court. let's speak now to cbs correspondent kenneth craig, who is in parkland, florida. thank you very much, i'm sure you have been doing this for many hours. is there any more coming through on the shooting suspect? many students say that they knew him, he had threatened other students, his social media post full of guns and violence and hate. there were warning signs. there certainly were warning signs and a lot of students were pretty quick to point those out, as you know, this was one of the stranger shootings i've been to in quite some time, and i've been to a lot of these because of the fact that so many students came out right after this happened, students walking out of the school, running to their lives, and met with tv cameras and so many of them, the first thing they said was this guy was a little bit off, he seemed a bit strange, i am actually not surprised that he would carry out something like this. of course, investigators are talking to those people at this point, they've interviewed more than 2000 people as part of this investigation and of course they will be taking a step back in time and going through his phone and his e—mail and of course those instagram post and any other social media accounts that as they try to establish a motive in all of this. it is coming through of course that the leader of the white nationalist militia is saying he had been training with them and there is the youtube post in which he said he planned to be a professional school shooter. we know the fbi were alerted and investigated up to a point at what they seem to be saying is actually and crazily, this is not that unusual on social media, we cannot deal with all of them fully. yeah, you have to imagine the millions and millions of people who ta ke millions and millions of people who take the social media every day and say things that one may consider alarming that perhaps never amount to anything. in this case, it a p pa re ntly to anything. in this case, it apparently did. when the fbi looked into the post last year, the person who's you to page it is, a bail bondsman, reached out to the fbi and they had a conversation and they looked at the post and the fbi hit a dead end they couldn't establish when was or were was posted from all who the user was, even though his name was right there. but they'll bondsman said he took the authorities again, the fbi, right after it happened last night, and provided information once again to them. kenneth, thank you. let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. cyril ramaphosa has replaced jacob zuma as president of south africa, vowing that fighting corruption would be a top priority. this was the moment that cyril ramaphosa took the oath of office. would you please rate your right hand, mr president—elect and say" to help me god." so help me god. i confirm that we have both sealed the oath by signing and it is my honour and privilege to congratulate the president of the republic of south africa. president trump's former chief adviser, steve bannon, has again refused to answer key questions when being interviewed by the house intelligence committee, which is investigating alleged russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. the committee is reportedly considering holding him in contempt. the hollywood actress jennifer aniston and her husband justin theroux have announced they're separating after less than three years of marriage. the 49—year—old star of the american sitcom friends and 46—year—old leftovers actor said in a joint statement that the decision was mutual and lovingly made at the end of last year. it's the beginning of what could well be the biggest annual celebration worldwide — the lunar new year, also known as the spring festival. more than 1.4 billion chinese people around the world marked the official entry into the year of the dog with lanterns, banquets and colourful celebrations. the bbc‘s tim allman reports. in china, this is how most of the country sees in the lunar new year — state television spring festival gala. by some estimates, the most watched entertainment programme on earth. around 700 million viewers for a 11—hour spectacular of colour and sound. low key and subtle it is not, but this has become a new year tradition. some decided to celebrate in their own way with fireworks and sparklers in beijing. the sound of firecrackers, young and old enjoying the noise and the spectacle. translation: i hope this year of the dog, the children keep growing up in good health and our elders keep well, and i also send our new year wishes to everyone. away from the fireworks, there's food. entire families gathering together to make and consume dumplings and noodles — a tasty way to welcome the year of the dog. at this buddhist temple in shanghai, people prayed for good fortune. they burned incense, looking forward to new opportunities. and it isn'tjust china celebrating — this a sea of red lanterns in kuala lumpur. plenty of dogs were present — some symbolic, some real. hundreds of millions of people coming together to say goodbye to the old and hello to the new. tim allman, bbc news. a very happy one to you. and you can get in touch with me and most of the team on twitter. i'm @bbcmikeembley. thank you for watching. the weekend is fast approaching and the weather is looking mixed. a little mixed through the weekend. friday, for most of us, is looking absolutely fine. a lot of clear skies out there so there is plenty of sunshine on the way. but friday is going to start off pretty frosty. here is the satellite image. we have got some snow clouds across scotland right now. there's a cold air stream coming all the way from the arctic regions — from greenland, from iceland, tucking into scotland, so here we could see over the next couple of days or so quite a bit of snow. but that is going to be mostly across the hills. so the towns and cities and coastal areas will be mostly getting rainfall. the rest of the country, the early hours, look absolutely clear, england and wales. even around plymouth the temperatures will be around freezing or below. barely above freezing. around +1. here is the pressure map for friday. this is an area of high pressure, the closer you are to this area of high pressure today the better the weather will be. for places like hull, norwich and london and southampton will have plenty of sunshine and actually a lot of sun further north as well. across scotland, more cloud and rain in the western isles, slightly stronger wind and thicker cloud also for northern ireland. it won't be cold, around about 10 degrees in the south and in the north, newcastle eight degrees, aberdeen around seven. that's friday daytime. let's look at friday night. into the early hours of saturday and the weather front is approaching, thick cloud on the tip of cornwall through wales into western scotland there will be some rain around too. snow mostly across the hills, first thing on saturday morning in the north of the pennines, the highlands as well. then saturday itself we have weather fronts grazing northern parts of the uk, so this is where we are most likely to have the thickest of the cloud, there will be some, again, wintry showers around across scotland but for most of us the weather on saturday actually doesn't look too bad at all. some hazy sunshine around and those temperatures will be just about double figures in the south, seven or eight in the north. a lot more cloud in the atlantic. that will be coming our way, so come sunday, thick cloud right across the country here, a very different day, out of the two days, saturday is the sunnier day, sunday will be more cloudy with outbreaks of rain getting into cardiff, birmingham, belfast. maybe a bit of brightness in the north—east of scotland and east anglia for a time. bye— bye. this is bbc news, the headlines: a day after 17 people were killed in a school shooting, us democrats have criticised president trump and the republican speaker of the house, paul ryan, for refusing to discuss gun legislation. the president reacted to the florida killings by saying school safety would be his top priority. the newly elected president of south africa cyril ramaphosa has been sworn in. shortly after his unopposed election in parliament, mr ramaphosa said fighting corruption would be one of his priorities. he replaces jacob zuma who faced numerous corruption allegations and resigned on wednesday. it's the beginning of what could well be the biggest annual celebration worldwide, the lunar new year, also known as the spring festival. more than 1.4 billion chinese people marked the official entry into the year of the dog with lanterns, banquets and colourful celebrations. now on bbc news, it's time for hardtalk.