A six-year-old boy has been detained by police after shooting a teacher in the US state of Virginia
The shooting happened shortly after 14:00 local time (19:00 GMT) at Richneck Elementary School in the city of Newport News
It is unclear how the child obtained the gun, but Police say the incident was not “an accidental shooting”.
The teacher – who has not been named and is said to be in her 30s – was left with life-threatening injuries.
She was taken to a local hospital and is being closely monitored by doctors.
School District Head Dr George Parker said officials would “be looking at any instance that may have occurred that may have caused this incident”.
“This is terrible, something like this should never occur,” Dr Parker added. “We want to ensure nothing like this happens again.”
He said the school would be closed on Monday, and pledged that students and parents would be offered support to help them deal with the traumatic event.
Mayor Phillip Jones – who took office just three days ago – said the shooting marked “a dark day for Newport News”.
“We’re going to learn from this and we’re going to come back stronger,” he told reporters.
BBC