18 kids, 9 others killed in US school shootout

18 kids, 9 others killed in US school shootout

Newtown - Cunnecticut

A gunman killed 27 people, including 18 children, at a US school on Friday morning in one of the worst school shootings in the country’s history. The Friday morning (9.30pm IST) shootings happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, about 96 kilometres north-east of New York City. The police said that only students and school staff were killed. The shooter was found dead inside the school and the scene was secure, they added. The White House said President Barack Obama had been notified and that he had “enormous sympathy for families that are affected”. It was the latest of several mass shootings in the US this year. The shooting shocked the small community in one of the wealthiest counties in the US, and anguished parents came running when they heard the news. A law enforcement official in Washington said the attacker was a 20-year-old man and that one of the guns he used was a .223-caliber rifle. The New Jersey State Police office said the district had locked down the other schools in town and in neighbouring places as a precautionary measure.