Zeenews Bureau
New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid on Saturday sent condolence message to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, expressing India`s grief on the shooting at a Connecticut elementary school on Friday.
Khurshid, who is in Myanmar, wrote a letter: "I was deeply saddened to learn the terrible news of the shooting at an elementary school in Connecticut...The killing of children is a particularly abhorrent act; one which leaves the whole world diminished".
"As you and the American people try to come to terms with this act of complete senselessness, and to address the trauma caused by it, I want you to know that the Government and people of India share your grief and prayers for consolation."
"Please accept my personal sympathy and solidarity, and that of the people of India for the friendly people of the United States", Khurshid said. .
Investigators, who are still looking for answers as to why a 20-year-old gunman shot dead 20 children and six adults in the school before apparently killing himself, combed the crime scene on Saturday.
The bodies of those killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, 60 miles north of New York City, were transported to the office of the state medical examiner for post-mortem examinations, state police said.
Police were still groping for the possible motive of the shooter, identified by as 20-year-old Adam Lanza who authorities said appeared to have taken his own life, turning his gun on himself in the school.
Police said Lanza, who grew up in the tight-knit community of 27,000, killed his mother at her Newtown home before going to the school where he primarily targeted two classrooms.
Connecticut State Police spokesman Lt J Paul Vance told a press conference in Newtown on Saturday that the gunman forcibly entered the school whose doors were locked.
At about 9.30 am on Friday, as announcements were read over the loudspeaker to the nearly 700 students, the first shots rang out. Students described being ushered into bathrooms and closets by teachers after hearing the first shots.
(With IANS inputs)
