Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Saturday sent a letter to US President Barack
Obama expressing "profound grief" over the mass shooting at an elementary
school in Newtown, Connecticut.
Twenty school-children on Friday were slaughtered by heavily armed gunman Adam Lanza, 20, who
ultimately killed 28 people including himself in one of
the worst mass shootings in US history.
"I was shocked and horrified by [the] savage massacre of innocent children and adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut," Netanyahu wrote.
"We in Israel have experienced such cruel acts of slaughter and we know the shock and agony they bring," he continued. "I want to express my profound grief, and that of all the people of Israel, to the families that lost their loved ones."
The prime minister concluded by conveying his "deepest condolences" and wishes for "the American people [to] find the strength to overcome this unspeakable tragedy."
President Shimon Peres likewise on Saturday sent a letter of support to his US counterpart, saying that "as
friends and parents" the Israeli nation shares the US'
deep sorrow over the terrible and incomprehensible murder.
"There
is no crime more shocking than the murder of children," Peres
continued, stressing that the "collective heart of the people of Israel"
is with the families of the victims, with the grieving community of
Newton and with the American people as a whole.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with you," Peres concluded.
Earlier Saturday, Tzipi Livni sent US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a letter of condolence.
"Senseless violence has shown its ugliest face, since it struck at civilized society's most vulnerable spot, our young children. The human soul refuses to comprehend these images of bloodshed and grief," The Tzipi Livni Party leader wrote.
"On this fateful day when tragedy struck at the good people of Newtown, I grieve, along with my fellow Israelis, the loss of so many lives of innocent men, women and children. Our hearts go out to the families of the victims," she added.
A shocked community begins to mourn
Authorities
found 18 children and seven adults, including the gunman, dead at the
school, and two children were pronounced dead later after being taken to
a hospital. Another adult was found dead at a related crime scene in
Newtown, bringing the toll to 28, state police Lieutenant Paul Vance
said.
As reports of the shooting spread, panicked parents rushed
to the school searching for their children as students covered in blood
were being carried out of the building.
US President Barack Obama, wiping
away tears and pausing to collect his emotions in an address to the
nation, mourned the "beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10
years old" who were killed.
"Our hearts are broken today, for the
parents, and grandparents, sisters and brothers of these little
children and for the families of the adults who were lost," Obama said,
his voice cracking.
Hundreds of Newtown residents gathered to
mourn on Friday night at St. Rose of Lima, the Catholic church just a
couple of miles (km) from the school.
Connecticut Governor Dannel
Malloy and Senator Richard Blumenthal spoke at the service, although
the crowd appeared most moved by Monsignor Robert Weiss, who had spent
the day at a firehouse consoling victims' families.
"Life has changed forever in Newtown," Weiss said. "We have 20 new saints today. We have 20 beautiful angels."
People
lingered well after the service had ended. A middle-aged man sat with
his face in his hands, elbows on a pew. A woman behind him prayed with
her hands together, fingertips to her lips. Nearby, a man in work boots
hugged a friend.
The holiday season tragedy was the second
shooting rampage in the United States this week and the latest in a
series of mass killings this year, and was certain to revive a debate
about US gun laws.
'Always very concerned about her son'
Early
media reports suggested that Lanza's mother, Nancy, was a teacher at
the school and that he shot her and her students. But by evening, many
media accounts indicated that Lanza's mother was the fatality at the
second crime scene. Her connection to the school was unclear.
Nancy
Lanza was "very nice, very pleasant and always very appreciative of our
work," said Dan Holmes, owner of Holmes Fine Gardens, a landscaping
firm in Newtown.
Holmes, who last week decorated her yard with
Christmas garlands and lights, said Nancy Lanza was an avid gun
collector who once showed him a "really nice, high-end rifle" she had
purchased.
"She said she would often go target shooting with her kids," said Holmes. "She was always very concerned about her son."
State police refused to confirm any details about the Lanzas, saying they hoped to have more information on Saturday.
The New York Times reported
Adam Lanza used a Sig Sauer and a Glock, both handguns, and said police
also found at the scene a Bushmaster .223 M4 carbine, a rifle, that
they believe belonged to him.
His brother, Ryan Lanza, was "either in custody or being questioned," a law enforcement source said.
Panic breaks out after dozens of shots fired
The
chaos struck as children gathered in their classrooms for morning
sessions at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, a wealthy, wooded suburb
of 27,000 in Fairfield County, about 80 miles (130 km) northeast of New
York City.
A state police spokesman said the shootings took place
in two rooms. Witnesses reported hearing dozens of shots; some said as
many as 100 rounds.
Images from the scene showed children being
led away in single file, each child's hands clutching the shoulders of
the one in front. Police wearing body armor and carrying rifles swarmed
the scene and locked down the school.
Nearly 12 hours later, the bodies of the dead children, adults and gunman remained in the school awaiting identification.
The
toll in Newtown exceeded that of one of the most notorious US school
shootings, the 1999 rampage at Columbine High School in Littleton,
Colorado, where two teenagers killed 13 students and staff before
killing themselves.
The United States has seen a number of
shooting rampages this year, most recently in Oregon, where a gunman
killed two people and then himself at a shopping mall on Tuesday. The
deadliest came in July at a midnight screening of a Batman film in
Colorado that killed 12 people and wounded 58.
In 2007, 32 people were killed at Virginia Tech university in the deadliest act of criminal gun violence in US history.
International community expresses support for US
French President Francois Hollande, in an open letter to Obama, said he was "horrified" by the shootings.
British
Prime Minister David Cameron said, "It is heartbreaking to think of
those who have had their children robbed from them at such a young age,
when they had so much life ahead of them."
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed his condolences and called the targeting of children "heinous and unthinkable."