27 killed in US school shooting

At least 27 people, 18 of whom are children, were killed in a shooting yesterday at a Connecticut elementary school, reported US media citing law enforcement officials.
Connecticut State Police spokesman Lieutenant Paul Vance could not confirm the death toll, but said there had been "several fatalities" among staff and students at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown.
He said that the shooter had died within the building during the police operation, and that the scene was secure and the public safe, but gave few details of the latest in a series of recent gun massacres to rock America.
If confirmed, the toll would be the second highest death toll in a US school shooting, exceeding the 15 killed in the 1999 Columbine High School massacre that triggered a fierce but inconclusive debate about the United States' liberal gun control laws.
CBS News cited law enforcement sources as saying that 27 people were killed, including 18 children.
"I was in the gym at the time ... we heard lots of bangs, and we thought that it was the custodian knocking stuff down. We heard screaming. And so went to the wall, and we sat down," a young boy told WCBS television.
"Then the police came in. It's like, is he in here? Then he ran out. Then somebody yelled get to a safe place, so we went to the closet in the gym and we sat there for a little while," he said, as stunned parents arrived.
"Then the police like were knocking on the door, and they're like, we're evacuating people, we're evacuating people. We ran out.
"They're police at every door leading us down this way, this way. Quick, quick, come on. We ran down to the firehouse. There's a man that pinned down to the ground with handcuffs on," he said.
Police swarmed into the leafy neighborhood after the shooting, while other area schools were put under lock-down, police and local media said.
Deadly shootings are a frequent occurrence in US public places, often ending only when the gunman is shot or kills himself.
Despite the tragedies support for tougher gun ownership laws is mixed, with many Americans opposing restrictions of what they consider to be a constitutional right to keep powerful firearms at home.