**LEAD STORY**
Sixteen small children and one teacher were shot and killed inside of a school gymnasium by a lone gunman in Dunblane, Scotland, on Wednesday morning at about 0930 GMT. After committing the senseless murders, the gunman was reportedly killed by turning the gun on himself. All of the children were said to be in what is called kindergarten in the U.S. and were, for the most part, aged five and six years.
Twelve other children were reported wounded in the attack at the school in a village of 7,300 people, located about 40 miles from Edinburgh. Several of the victims were air transported to a hospital located about five miles from the scene. Hospitals in Glasgow and Edinburgh were put on alert. More than a dozen ambulances were sent to the scene of the shooting.
At least two wounded children were airlifted to a hospital in Glasgow, Scotland. One of the victims was reported to be shot in the chest and was in critical condition.
The gunman was identified as 43-year-old Thomas Hamilton. Chief Constable William Wilson said that Hamilton was armed with four handguns and at about 0930 GMT burst through the front entrance of the school. He went down a passageway, past the school's dining room and went into the gym, where the school's smallest children were having a class.
The motive for today's mass murder is not known. Incidents such as what happened today are rare in Great Britain because guns are more difficult to obtain than in the United States. This was said to be Britain's worst shooting since August of 1987 when a 27-year-old man shot sixteen people and then himself in Hungerford, England.
(c) EmergencyNet News Service, 1996, All rights reserved.