Bloomington eighth-graders on a field trip Thursday morning in a conservation area in Eden Prairie came upon the body of a young man who had shot himself.

The students and a teacher from Oak Grove Middle School found the body shortly after 10 a.m. in the woods less than a minute's walk down a trail from the main parking lot of the Richard T. Anderson Conservation Area, city spokeswoman Katie Beal said.

Police interviewed the teacher and the students, the field trip was canceled and grief counselors were made available, school district spokesman Rick Kaufman said.

"A couple of kids were very distraught by what they saw," he said.

PAUL WALSH