America was tonight facing the prospect of its worst ever school massacre amid reports that as many as 27 people had been killed after a gunman went on the rampage in a kindergarten class. Up to 18 of the dead were said to be children after a parent at the school began firing indiscriminately.
At a news conference Friday afternoon, state police Lt. Paul Vance declined to put a number on the deaths. He would say only that there had been "several fatalities." Police were waiting to notify families before releasing details, but he reassured nervous residents that the school was secure, the danger past.
US media tonight named the alleged shooter as 24-year-old Ryan Lanza.
Television stations beamed pictures of frightened pupils at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, some 65 miles northeast from New York City, as police and other law enforcement officials arrived at the scene.
With parents rushing to a nearby staging area set up by authorities, early reports put the number of fatalities at more than 20 and possibly up to 27, with NBC New York, citing “numerous law enforcement sources”, saying up to 18 children were among the dead.
Another 7 adults were said to have perished, along with a teacher and the gunman. Reuters, citing a local newspaper, suggested that, hours after the news first broke, an entire classroom of children remained unaccounted for.
Meanwhile, it was unclear how the gunman died. Two nine mm handguns were reported to have been recovered from the scene. NBC New York later reported that a man had been taken into custody following the shooting, however it was unclear what role if nay he had in the shooting.
The dead gunman was said to have been the father of a student at Sandy Hook and about 20 years old, according to an official who spoke to CBS News. In all, around 700 pupils regularly attend the kindergarten-to-fourth grade school located in a quiet stretch of suburban woodlands.
Earlier, as the first accounts of the incident emerged, the area was put into lockdown as emergency services scrambled to the school.
“I was in the gym and I heard a loud, like seven loud booms, and the gym teachers told us to go in the corner, so we all huddled,” one student told NBC Connecticut during its live broadcast. "And I kept hearing these booming noises. And we all … started crying.”
She added: “All the gym teachers told us to go into the office where no one could find us. So then a police officer came in and told us to run outside. So we did and we came in the firehouse and waited for our parents.”
Parents interviewed by local television stations said that anyone entering the school during the day must usually ring a bell and show their face on a screen in order to be let inside by school officials, suggesting that the gunman was known to them.
The shooting is the latest such incident to hit America, with the number dead reported to be more than double those killed at Columbine in Colorado, where 13 people were killed in the infamous massacre in 1999.
More recently, Colorado was hit by a mass shooting at a midnight showing of the new Batman film, with the July attack leaving 12 dead and at least 58 injured. At Virginia Tech, a university, 32 people were left dead following a massacre by a student in 2007.
Speaking earlier this afternoon, White House Spokesman Jay Carney said President Obama had been notified about the “tragic” killings in Connecticut and was keeping an eye on the situation as it developed.
“We’re still waiting for more information about the incident in Connecticut,” Mr Carney said when asked about the president's reaction to it. Connecticut’s governor Dan Malloy, who arrived at the scene earlier in the day, was said to have called the President to update him on the killings.
Friday 14 December 2012
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/at-least-27-killed-including-18-children-in-newtown-connecticut-elementary-school-shooting-say-reports-8417931.html
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