Shocked at the horrific shooting at a US elementary schoolthat left 20 small children and six teachers dead, world leaders today said itwas a "senseless and incomprehensible act of evil", as PresidentBarack Obama sought "meaningful action" to prevent such tragedies infuture.
A gunman, identified as 20-year-old Adam Lanza in mediareports, opened indiscriminate fire at the Sandy Hook Elementary School inConnecticut yesterday killing 26 people.
He later died from a self-inflicted gun shot wound,according to law enforcement agents.
Reacting to the horrific shooting, UN Secretary General BanKi-moon described it as "heinous and unthinkable" even as New YorkMayor Michael Bloomberg prodded Obama to take "immediate" action tocorrect the country's gun laws.
Ban extended his condolences to families of the victims andto "all others traumatised by this horrendous crime."
The UN chief wrote to Connecticut Governor Dan Malloy toexpress his deepest condolences at the "shocking murders".
Bloomberg, who is also the co-chair of Mayors AgainstIllegal Guns, said after similar incidents of "madness" in VirginiaTech, Aurora and Wisconsin, it is time Obama send a bill on gun laws toCongress to fix the problem.
"With all the carnage from gun violence in our country,it's still almost impossible to believe that a mass shooting in a kindergartenclass could happen. It has come to that.
Not even kindergardeners learning their A,B,Cs aresafe," he said in a statement.
European Union diplomacy chief Catherine Ashton voiced her"shock" at the "tragic shooting, while head of the EuropeanCommission Jose Manuel Barroso mentioned his "deep shock and horror"over the incident, which he termed as a "terrible tragedy."
