Mourners in Newtown, Connecticut, stood in silence under heavy rain while church bells rang to honour the 20 young children and six staff massacred in a school shooting a week ago. The sombre scene at 09:30 am, the moment a week earlier when a deranged local man armed with semiautomatic weapons burst into the Sandy Hook Elementary School, was echoed around the country in an unofficial national day of mourning.
President Barack Obama observed the moment of silence at the White House and he Tweeted: "20 beautiful children & 6 remarkable adults. Together, we will carry on & make our country worthy of their memory." Connecticut State Governor Dannel Malloy had been the first to call on residents to stop and reflect in silence at the exact minute that 20-year-old Adam Lanza began his slaughter of the six- and seven-year-old children and their school staff.
"Let us all come together collectively to mourn the loss of far too many promising lives," Malloy said. "Though we will never know the full measure of sorrow experienced by these families, we can let them know that we stand with them during this difficult time." In Newton, bells rang as people on the street stood in a cold, driving rain. Outside the fire station near the school, which remains closed off by police, a woman brushed tears and raindrops away from a man's face. Some stood stoically, heads bowed, while others sobbed.
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