Vigils are held in Newtown, Connecticut, as the small US town grieves for 20 children and seven adults murdered by a lone gunman.
The United States is in shock after a man murdered his mother at home before gunning down 20 children and six adults in a Connecticut school.

The heavily armed gunman, named as 20-year-old Adam Lanza, shot the children - aged between five and 10 years old - at Sandy Hook Elementary School, where his mother had worked as teacher.

Dawn Hochsprung, the head teacher at the school in Newtown, was among those killed in the shooting, which began at around 9:30am - just after school day started.

After storming through several classrooms, Lanza, who was wearing a bullet-proof vest and carrying two handguns, turned one of the guns he was carrying on himself.

An emotional US President Barack Obama wiped tears from his eyes as he told a stunned country: 'Our hearts are broken today.'

Mr Obama hinted at possible gun law reform, declaring that the latest atrocity signals that the country should come together to take meaningful action, 'regardless of the politics'.

Of the children killed, Mr Obama said: 'They had their entire lives ahead of them - birthdays, graduations, wedding, kids of their own.'

Children told their parents they had heard bangs and, at one point, a scream over the intercom. Teachers ordered them to hide .