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A 16-year-old student wielding a shotgun wounded two people Thursday at a California high school before being talked into surrendering by a teacher and another staff member, local reports said.

The attack came less than a month after 20 schoolchildren and six teachers were killed in Connecticut in one of the worst school shootings in US history, and as Vice President Joe Biden's White House task force was holding talks on measures to reduce gun violence.

The shooting took place at 9 am (1700 GMT) at Taft Union High School in Kern County, 190 kilometres north of Los Angeles.

Police said that one teenaged victim was in critical but stable condition. The second person suffered a minor pellet wound and declined treatment.

CBS News quoted the sheriff as saying the shooter may have had up to 20 shotgun rounds in his pockets when he was persuaded to lay down his weapon by the teacher and campus supervisor.

The shooting happened on the second floor of the school's science building. The school was locked down and parents were picking up their children at an athletic field, according to local television reports.