BRITAIN was numb with grief last night as a small Scottish town mourned the 16 children and their teacher murdered in the gymnasium of Dunblane Primary School yesterday morning.
At approximately 9.38 a.m. police were told that an armed man had entered the school hall. But in little more than three minutes the gunman - later named by police as former Boy Scout leader Thomas Hamilton - wrought unprecedented carnage before turning a handgun on himself.
His body was found alongside those of his 17 victims - 16 children, none of them aged more than six, and their teacher, Mrs Gwenne Mayor (44), a mother of two.
Reports last night that 15 others were being treated in the Stirling region suggested that Hamilton may have fired on others on his way to the gymnasium, where the Primary One class was preparing for its first lesson of the day.
It is understood that Hamilton (43), who lived in Stirling and was reportedly a member of a local gun club, used four handguns in the attack. Details were emerging last night about the man, described as "a loner" with a "grudge" against the Scout movement.
Amid reports of a video and photographs of boys having been seen at his home, a spokesman for the Scout Association told the Press Association he had been a scout leader from July 1973 to March 1974, and was requested to resign "following complaints about unstable and possibly improper behaviour."
At a news conference last night Supt Louis Munn of Strathclyde police said the gunman was understood to have walked into the school grounds and then into the building itself. "I think his presence was noted by several people in the school. But I don't think they had the opportunity to challenge him."
Supt Munn said the police were unaware of any specific motive for the attack. And while he declined to say whether Hamilton was known to the police, he said he was certainly "known locally".
Asked if the gunman might have been unaware of his actions, Supt Munn replied: "I think he knew what he was doing." He also revealed that two teachers injured in the attack had been targeted by Hamilton outside the gymnasium.
There were harrowing scenes at the school gates as frantic and distraught parents returned to the school and waited fearfully to learn whether their children were living or dead.
The Prime Minister, Mr John Major, described the murders as "a sickening and evil act that almost passes belief". Queen Elizabeth sent a message of sympathy to the bereaved and injured through the Scottish Secretary, Mr Michael Forsythe, in whose constituency the atrocity occurred.
And the Labour leader, Mrs Tony Blair, struggled to contain his emotions as he reacted to the killings of "little children . .. who went out to school with the whole of their lives before them, and now nothing."
Mr Forsythe and his Labour shadow, Mr George Robertson, flew immediately to Scotland to lead a town and country wracked shock and grief.
Mr Robertson, who lives in Dunblane, fought back tears as he described the inadequacy of words to match the horror: "It's just so terrible, that those of us who deal with words can find no words for it."
Mr Major is expected to travel to Dunblane upon his return from the summit in Egypt on Friday.