BBC News with Iian Purdon.
In one of the worst mass killings in recent US history, a gunman has shot dead 20 children and six adults at a primary school in the northeastern state of Connecticut. A police spokesman said the gunman himself was also died and another body had been found at a location connected with him. Paul Adams reports from Washington.
The shooting took place at a Sandy Hook Elementary School in western Connecticut. Eyewitnesses spoke of hearing many of hundreds of shots and watching frighten children between 5 and 10 years of age running from the school. The police search the building thoroughly recovering a handgun and the rifle. Lieutenant Paul Vance spoke to reporters when the search was over.
The entire school was searched, and soon thereafter the children and staff were reunited with their parents and their loved ones. The shooter is deceased inside the building, and many agencies are working together to answer all the question surrounding what exactly what happened.
For sometime, the apparent lack of panic outside the school led network to report the death toll was low, but gradually and altogether more horrific picture has emerged - the one of the worst mass shootings in American history. Television networks now identifying the gunman who is said to be wearing military clothing, as a 24-year-old Ryan Lanza.
In the past hours President Obama has given an emotional address about the killings on national television. He said he was speaking not as a president but as a parent.