Connecticut school massacre leaves 27 dead, according to reports

 A gunman opened fire inside a Connecticut elementary school Friday in a shooting that left 27 people dead, including 18 children, an official said.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was still under way.

The shooting appeared to be the nation's second-deadliest school shooting, exceeded only by the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007.

Parents flooded to Sandy Hook Elementary School, about 60 miles northeast of New York City, looking for their children in the wake of the shooting. Students were told by police to close their eyes as they were led from the building.

A photo taken by The Newtown Bee newspaper showed a group of young students — some crying, others looking visibly frightened — being escorted by adults through a parking lot in a line, hands on each other's shoulders.

Students and staff were among the victims, state police Lt. Paul Vance said at a brief news conference. He also said the gunman was dead inside the school, but he refused to say how people were killed.

Another official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation was still under way, said the gunman apparently had two guns.

A law enforcement official in Washington said the attacker was a 24-year-old man with ties to the school and that one of the guns was a .223-caliber rifle. The official also said that police were searching a location in Hoboken, N.J., in connection with the shootings. That official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the source was not authorized to speak on the record about the developing criminal investigation.

MSNBC is quoting law enforcement officials that the gunman was Ryan Lanza, a 24-year-old, whose mother was a teacher at the school. It was reported that Mr. Lanza went to the principal's office first, then to his mother's kindergarten classroom. His mother is among the fatalities, according to MSNBC.

Stephen Delgiadice said his 8-year-old daughter heard two big bangs and teachers told her to get in a corner. His daughter was fine.

"It's alarming, especially in Newtown, Conn., which we always thought was the safest place in America," he said.

A dispatcher at the Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps said a teacher had been shot in the foot and taken to Danbury Hospital. Andrea Rynn, a spokeswoman at the hospital, said it had three patients from the school, but she did not have information on the extent or nature of their injuries.

Mergim Bajraliu, age 17, heard the gunshots echo from his home and raced to check on his 9-year-old sister at the school. He said his sister, who was fine, heard a scream come over the intercom at one point. He said teachers were shaking and crying as they came out of the building.

"Everyone was just traumatized," he said.

Richard Wilford's 7-year-old son, Richie, is in the second grade at the school. His son told him that he heard a noise that "sounded like what he described as cans falling."

The boy told him a teacher went out to check on the noise, came back in, locked the door, and had the kids huddle up in the corner until police arrived.

"There's no words," Mr. Wilford said. "It's sheer terror, a sense of imminent danger, to get to your child and be there to protect him."

The White House said Barack Obama was notified of the shooting and his spokesman, Jay Carney, said the president had "enormous sympathy for families that are affected."

The president gave a brief statement Friday afternoon, confirming that "the majority of those who died today were children. Beautiful little children between 5 and 10 years old." He closed by saying: "May God bless their memories, and in the words of the Scripture, 'mend the broken-hearted and bind up their wounds.' "

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Associated Press writers Jim Fitzgerald in Newtown, Pete Yost in Washington, D.C., and Michael Melia in Hartford contributed to this report.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.