MOUNT MORRIS TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) - A 6-year-old girl was shot to death by a 7-year-old classmate at an elementary school this morning, authorities said.

A single shot was fired during a first-grade class at Buell Elementary School, Police Chief Eric King said. It was not immediately clear if the shooting was accidental or intentional, he said.

The girl died about 10:30 a.m., said Hurley Medical Center spokeswoman Stephanie Motschenbacher. That was about a half-hour after the shooting.

The 7-year-old boy was in custody, King said. About 22 pupils were inside the classroom when the shot was fired.

"We don't know if it's an accident or what," Beecher School District Superintendent Ira A. Rutherford said. "There is no evidence of animosity or vengeance or a motive."

Third-grader Corey Sutton, 9, said he heard a bang.

"I thought it was a desk or something falling," he said. "The principal came over the PA system and told teachers to shut their doors and lock them.

"I was scared; my heart was pounding," he said.

The teacher told pupils to line up and get their coats on, Corey said, and then "she told us what happened. A girl got shot, and the teacher started crying."

Police closed off nearby streets and sent parents across the street to a church to await the release of children from the school, which has an enrollment of about 500.

Crystal Watson, 8, who was in her third-grade class, said she didn't know anything had happened until she heard sirens.

"We were told to stay in our class and stay calm," she told The Flint Journal. "A couple of boys were crying, but everyone else was staying calm."

"We're interested in how the little boy came into possession of the weapon," Genesee County Prosecutor Arthur A. Busch said. "We've had other schoolchildren take guns to elementary schools before ... but it never went this far with it. It's a sign of our times where we have a fully armed society that doesn't take its responsibility to secure its weapons seriously."

A fourth-grader, Christopher Burch, 9, was scared because he has relatives in the first grade.

"My teacher told me a first-grader shot another first-grader, and I started crying because I thought it was my cousin or sister," he said. He found out minutes later that neither of his relatives was shot.

Mount Morris Township is some 65 miles northwest of Detroit.