A teacher gunned down during the Connecticut school massacre was remembered as a selfless hero who died trying to shield her pupils.

The powerful US gun lobby felt the first backlash from the Newtown massacre today when a leading private equity group decided to sell its stake in the company that made the killer’s assault rifle.

A mournful Barack Obama has told Newtown the United States is failing to keep its children safe, pledging that change must come after an elementary school massacre left 20 children dead.

The gunman in the Connecticut shooting rampage shot his mother four times in the head before going to the school and gunning down 26, authorities said yesterday as details emerged suggesting that Adam Lanza had planned an even more gruesome massacre.

A worker who turned on the intercom, alerting others something was wrong.