A six-year-old boy has been taken into custody after he shot and killed a teacher in the US state of Virginia, police said.
The shooting happened shortly after 2 p.m. local time (7 p.m. GMT) at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News, Superintendent Steve Drew said.
It is not clear how the child got hold of the gun, but Mr Drew said the incident was not a “random shooting”.
The teacher, who has not been named and is believed to be in her 30s, was in a life-threatening condition.
She was taken to a local hospital and is being closely monitored by doctors. The incident took place in the classroom of the first class (six to seven years old) after an argument between the pair.
But Mr Drew stressed that the shooting was an isolated incident, stressing that officers “didn’t have a situation where someone was shooting around the school”.
Officials said the school — which has about 550 students — had metal detectors, but students were checked randomly and not every child was screened.
Police declined to name the weapon used in the incident, but said the boy used a handgun.
Head of the school district Dr. George Parker said officers would “look into any case that could have caused this incident”.
“It’s terrible, something like this should never happen,” added Dr. Parker. “We want to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again.”
He said the school would be closed on Monday and promised support would be offered to students and parents to help them cope 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 will learn something from this and we will come back stronger,” he told reporters.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin said he has offered to help local officials, adding that his administration is “ready to help in any way we can.”
“I continue to monitor the situation and pray for the continued safety of all students and the community,” he wrote on Twitter.
Newport News is a city of about 180,000 people and lies about 70 miles (112 km) south of the capital, Richmond.
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