The Paalalinna school in the town of Viljandi, where the shooting took place. Photo courtesy: Postimees

 AFP

 A female teacher was shot dead on Monday by a teenage male pupil in a high school rampage in Estonia, the first case of its kind in the Baltic state.

The 15-year-old assailant, who has been taken into custody, used a gun registered to his father, police said.

"The shooting took place during a German lesson and the teacher was fatally injured," police spokeswoman Kristina Kostina told AFP.

"There are no other victims or injured," she added.

Estonia's education minister was travelling to the scene in the central town of Viljandi, according to the ministry.

The motive for the attack remained unclear.

However, Estonia's leading Postimees newspaper reported that the unidentified boy had made disturbing posts on Facebook alongside photographs of guns and war.

"Don't judge me because I'm quiet. No one plans a murder out loud," Postimees quoted him as saying in an April 1 post. 

Officials said the teenager used a revolver that was legally registered to his father to shoot the 56-year-old teacher.

Estonian media quoted the high school principal as describing the boy as a "very well-behaved young man" who had previously had no trouble at school.

"His achievements in school were not bad, an average pupil," principal Aavo Palo was quoted as saying by Estonian media.

"I don't have any information that the teacher... had any conflicts with students previously and up until now I have no idea what exactly happened in this case," Palo said.

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