Enormous sympathy, says Obama

President Barack Obama spoke to Connecticut's governor Friday and expressed condolences to those who lost loved ones in the elementary school shooting.

The White House said the president had "enormous sympathy for families that are affected".

"As a father, incidents like these weigh heavily on him," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

Obama was briefed on the shooting Friday morning by his counterterrorism adviser John Brennan and will continue to receive regular updates throughout the day. Carney said the president was likely to address the shooting later Friday.

In addition to his phone call with Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy, Obama also spoke Friday with FBI director Robert Mueller. The FBI is supporting state and local law enforcement officials in Connecticut as they respond to and investigate the incident.

Carney said the administration would "do everything we can to support state and local law enforcement".

The shooting shocked the small community in one of the wealthiest counties in the US, and anguished parents came running when they heard the news. It was the latest of several mass shootings in the US this year, and it approached the deadly scope of the Virginia Tech university massacre in 2007 that left 32 dead. Photos from the scene showed students — some crying, others looking frightened — being escorted by adults through a parking lot in a line, hands on each other's shoulders.

A law enforcement official in Washington said the attacker was a 20-year-old man with ties to the school and that one of the guns was a .223-calibre rifle. The official also said that New Jersey State Police were searching a location in that state in connection with the shootings.

22 children hurt in knife attack in China school

A knife-wielding man injured 22 children and an adult outside a primary school in in the Henan province village of Chengping as students were arriving for classes Friday, police said. The attacker, 36-year-old villager Min Yingjun, is now in police custody, said the officer.

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