FERRIDAY— Three teens wielding replica firearms allegedly shot several students with plastic pellets Tuesday morning on a school bus.

The teens, who ranged in age from 13 to 16, were later arrested and charged with possession of a handgun by a juvenile as well as simple battery, Concordia Parish Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Lee Ford said.

The students, Ford said, boarded the school bus on their way to Ferriday Junior High School before pulling out replica firearms that look like a .45-caliber handgun.

“They began shooting several smaller kids as well as each other while on the bus,” Ford said. ‘The weapons look so real that it’s hard for people to know it’s not the real thing.”

Ford said he picked up the teens from the school and took them to the sheriff’s office for interrogation, where several of them confessed to the alleged crime.

“Everything was caught on video that the buses have, so we pretty much had them doing the whole thing on the video,” Ford said. “All the kids pretty much admitted to doing it, and we had several other witnesses besides the video.”

Ford said incidents like the one Tuesday morning can easily escalate into more serious situations.

“Because those replica guns look so real, if they had pulled them on an officer in that situation it would be hard to know it was fake,” Ford said. “It’s amazing how real they look.”

The teens were released Tuesday afternoon after being booked in the juvenile system, Ford said.