Conference tallis::celt

    May god bless those that died.
    
    
    CHARLEY

    AP 13 Mar 96 7:22 EST V0174
    
    Copyright 1996 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
    
    Report: Gunman Kills 15 Scots
    
    DUNBLANE, Scotland (AP) -- A gunman burst into a Scottish elementary
    school Wednesday and fired at a class of 5-year-olds,  killing two
    teachers and at least 12 children, news reports said. 
    
    Press Association, the British news agency, quoted the Scottish
    Ambulance Service as saying 12 children were killed. Sky News
    television, quoting the Scottish Education Department, said 13 children
    had died. 
    
    At least nine other children were reportedly injured. 
    
    The gunman shot himself after killing the children, according to Press
    Association. 
    
    The shooting occurred at the Dunblane Primary School in Dunblane, a
    village of 9,000 people 40 miles from Edinburgh. The school has more
    than 700 pupils. 
    
    "There has been a firearms incident involving a number of fatalities
    and injuries. We are treating this as a major incident,"  a police
    statement said. It gave no other details. 
    
    Police sealed off main roads into the town, and an air ambulance flew
    in from Prestwick, an airport 60 miles to the southwest, to fly
    casualties to Stirling, 5 miles away. 
    
    Frantic parents tried to telephone the school. 
    
    "I just can't believe what sort of sick person would do this sort
    of thing," said Yvonne Nelson, 38, whose children go to Dunblane High
    School a mile away. "It's just an ordinary country school with friendly
    teachers and kids." 
    

     PA 13 Mar 96 13:33 GMT S2747
    
     By PA News Reporters            
    
     15 MASSACRED IN SCHOOL SHOOTING HORROR
    
     Thirteen children and two adults died when a lone gunman opened fire
    in
     a Scottish primary school today in an horrific slaughter of the
     innocents. 
    
     Ambulance officials said another 17 people - many of them children but
     possibly adults as well - were injured in the attack. 
    
     The nightmare shooting happened at the 700-pupil primary school in
     Dunblane, central Scotland, shortly after classes began this morning. 
    
     The slaughter is believed to have taken place in the school gymnasium
     and unconfirmed reports said the gunman was brandishing several     
    weapons, including an automatic pistol. 
    
    The drama is thought to have begun as a hostage-taking incident. 
    
    The gunman was reported to have taken his own life, although other
    reports said he was merely wounded. 
    
    The children who died were five or six years old - all in primary year
    one, said the local education authority. 
    
    John Major described the massacre as "this mad and evil act",  adding:
    "It is beyond belief that so many young lives can have been so brutally
    ended in this way." 
    
    The scale of the outrage stunned the small town 30 miles north of
     Glasgow, and Scottish Secretary Michael Forsyth and Education Minister
        Raymond Robertson flew north to the scene from London. 
    
        With them came Labour shadow Scottish secretary George Robertson who
        lives in Dunblane. 
    
        Pat Greenhill, Provost of Stirling, said: "I have been hoping against
        hope that the reports may have been exaggerated. 
    
        "This will devastate our community." 
    
        Two of the injured children were flown by air ambulance to Glasgow
        where a crash team at the city's Royal Hospital for sick children was
        standing by in case more were to arrive. 
    
        One of the children - like all those involved in the casualty, a
    first-year primary boy - arrived with a gunshot wound to the chest. 
    
        Hospital officials said his condition was "critical". 
    
        Paediatrician Dr Jack Beattie told newsmen at Stirling Royal Infirmary
        that 13 children and one adult had been admitted and that one child
        had
        died shortly after admission. 
    
        Former headteacher of Dunblane Primary School Jean Raye told BBC Radio
        4's World at One programme: "It is a very large primary school in a
        very wonderful community. Parents were always very supportive of the
        school. It was a happy school. 
    
        "I just could not believe it. I was so shocked. I kept thinking of all
        the parents whose children were at the school and who would not know
        whether it was their child who had been killed." 
      
    

The numbers, unfortunately, are out.  Latest reports are that 16 children died
along with their teacher and the killer.

Dunblane's a nice wee town - I spent a long time today just staring at the 
screen trying to comprehend this.

//alan

    As I've said elsewhere, this is appalling; what a tragic waste of life.
    Speaking as a parent of three children, the thought of having to deal
    with someone coming round to tell me my 5-year-old has been shot in the
    gym at school is one I really can't get to grips with.
    
    My heartfelt and sincere sympathies to all concerned.
    
    Laurie.

  My sympathies to the parents of those children, and the people of Scotland. 

                     Mark

    My prayers to the parents and families...  It's hard not to think of
    one's own children when something like this happens.  
    
    

    The British News had extended coverage of this last night. It's just
    awful.
    
    Laurie.

    Saw extended coverage on this mornings Good Morning America.
    I find it hard to accept what happened as real.  Killing children at
    all, and these were so young, is so against even the most threadbare 
    of human instincts.  My heart aches for the parents, the teachers and
    the children who survived.  None of them will ever forget.