Connecticut shooting ‘senseless act of evil’ - Australian PM

PanARMENIAN.Net - Shock and sympathy were the initial reactions from around the world to a shooting rampage that left 26 people dead, including 20 children, at a Connecticut elementary school, The Associated Press reports.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard described the attack as a "senseless and incomprehensible act of evil."

"Like President Obama and his fellow Americans, our hearts too are broken," Gillard said in a statement.

The gunman killed his mother at home before opening fire Friday, Dec 14, inside the school in Newtown, Connecticut, killing 28 people, including 20 children, police said. The killer, identified as 20-year-old Adam Lanza, then committed suicide.

"As parents and grandparents, as brothers and sisters, as friends of the American people, we mourn the loss of children, aged only 5 to 10 years, whose futures lay before them," Gillard said. "We mourn the loss of brave teachers who sought only to lead their students into that future but were brutally murdered in a place of refuge and learning."

Gillard's sentiments echoed those of British Prime Minister David Cameron, who said he "was shocked and deeply saddened" to learn of the "horrific shooting."

"My thoughts are with the injured and those who have lost loved ones," he 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."