The British Prime Minister, Mr Major said yesterday in Dunblane that the gym where 16 children were gunned down by Thomas Hamilton must be torn down.
On a visit to the grief-stricken town Mr Major and the Labour Party leader, Mr Tony Blair, laid wreaths. Turning to the headmaster, Mr Ron Taylor, as he entered the gym, Mr Major said: "They must tear it down." Mr Taylor asked "Will you give us the money?" to which Mr Major said "Yes" and looked to Scottish Secretary Michael Forsyth, who was also in the official party.
Earlier Mr Major and Mr Blair visited Stirling Royal Infirmary where Mr Major praised staff who had had to deal with a "horror of almost unimaginable proportions". The hospital took in the wave of casualties which followed Hamilton's 10 minutes of mayhem when he opened fire on the class of 29 children with four handguns.
Three school pupils are in the hospital's children's ward. Two five-year-old boys are still ill after being shot in the stomach and legs. Two injured teachers, Ms Eileen Harild and Ms Mary Blake, are being treated in a "high-dependency" ward.
Three other children are being cared for at Glasgow's Royal Hospital for Children, Yorkhill, where one of them - a five-year-old girl, Amie Adam - was last night critically ill.
One of the other two, Coll Austin, who has multiple wounds to the foot, chest and eye, was also still in a critical condition. The other, Ryan Liddell, was serious but stable.
Queen Elizabeth yesterday publicly expressed her heartache for the victims of the school massacre. She said: "My heart goes out to them, each and every one, and especially to the families of those who were killed and injured. May their courage remain undimmed."
She spoke of the horror of war but recognised that weapons of war can be "as beautiful as they are terrible".
This last comment embroiled her in a row with the veteran campaigner and Methodist minister, Lord Soper, who condemned it as deplorable".