Dunblane 'massacre of the angels': How the Express & Star reported on the horror

Here we take a look at how the Express & Star reported the horrific event, beginning with the front page article from the devastating day.

Sixteen children and two adults were killed when a lone gunman opened fire in a Scottish primary school today, in an horrific slaughter of the innocents.

• 'We'll never get over Dunblane': Father of Black Country girl killed in atrocity

• Dunblane massacre: Time does not heal the horrors

• Dunblane massacre: Reporting on the tragedy was an experience I will never forget

• Dunblane massacre: How atrocity paved way for tougher gun laws

Ambulance officials said another 17 people, many of them children but possibly adults as well, were injured in the attack.

The children whodied were five or six years old. Several other pupils were undergoing emergency surgery this afternoon.

The gunman was reported to have taken his own life, although other reports said he was merely wounded. His name has yet not been revealed.

The nightmare shooting happened at the 700-pupil primary school in Dunblane, central Scotland, shortly after classes began this morning.

The slaughter took place in the school gymnasium and unconfirmed reports said the gunman was brandishing several weapons, including an automatic pistol.

The drama is thought to have begun as a hostage-taking incident.

Pupils elsewhere in the school said they heard seven or eight loud cracks in quick succession as the incident began.

Fifteen children died at school and one in hospital,said a spokesman for Stirling Royal Infirmary.

The scale of the outrage stunned the small town 30 miles north of Glasgow.

Two of the injured children were flown by air ambulance to Glasgow where a crash team at the city's Royal Hospital for Sick Children was standing by in case more were to arrive.

One of the children arrived with a gunshot wound to the chest. Hospital officials said his condition was ``critical''.

A teacher who died was this afternoon named by the Educational Institute of Scotland as Gwen Mayor.

A local woman, Wilma Brown, claimed the gunman was in his late 40s and was not married.

She said he was involved in youth work including running a local football team, and ran a shop in Stirling.

One child in another part of the school told a reporter that they heard seven or eight ``cracks'' and got under their seats.

He said: ``The teachers told them to keep down until they found out exactly what was going on.''

DougMcAvoy of the National Union of Teachers described the incident as a ``horror story that you would never think you would experience in the United Kingdom.''

But he said he did not believe security should immediately be stepped up in schools all over the country.

``We don't want to make schools fortresses,'' he added.

Shadow Scottish Secretary George Robertson, Labour MP for Hamilton, lives in Dunblane and his children were pupils at the school.

A distraught father spoke of his wait to hear of the fate of his five-year-old son,a pupil at the Dunblane school.

Stuart Isles rushed home from Glasgow, where he is an electrical engineer, when he heard of the massacre.

His son Jack is a Primary One pupil at the school _ and his wife Elaine, aged 30, was teaching inthe next classroom to the gym where the shooting took place.

``I'm out of my mind with worry and just hanging on the phone to hear if my little boy and my wife are all right,'' he said.

``My wife is still at the school and I haven't been able to talk to her.

``She must have heard something going on but I just don't know yet.

``My little boy is thereand I'm not sure yet if he's safe.''

Police set up an incident room at the Westlands Hotel, about half a mile from the school, where anxious parents arrived for news of their children.

Reaction to the shootings in Dunblane this afternoon was one of total horror and disbelief.

Mr Philip Gregory, of the Stirling Arms hotel and restaurant in Dunblane, said: ``What on earth could motivate anyone to shoot dead 16 children?

``It's thoroughly evil. So many innocents are lost.''

He said he understood one of the dead adults was a woman PE teacher and the other was the gunman, who had shot himself.

Rumours were circulating that the gunman was a ``prominent'' local man, although no name had been suggested, headded.

``Ashen faces are the order of the day here,'' said Mr Gregory.

``You see people huddled together in mutual disbelief.

``Violence is not an everyday experience here. It's normally a super, beautiful place, which makes this themore incredible.

``At first when I heard the sirens I thought there had been a car accident. Then there were more sirens and a helicopter, by which time news of what had happened was circulating.

``The police aren't letting anyone through to the school except parents, who are carrying their children away in tears.''

Don Monteith, spokesman for Stirling District Council, which covers the Dunblane area, said: ``People were hoping at first that the news reports were exaggerated but, as it begins to sink in, it's just devastating.

``It's a very close community and it will devastate Dunblane.

``Most people in Dunblane will have known of someone affected by this horrible tragedy. A number of our staff havechildren at the school and all have been given the help number to ring.''

Stirling Regional Council spokesman BarbaraThompson said: ``The feeling at the council is one of shockand horror.

``Lots of staff within the council have children in the area and some of them could well have lost their sons or daughters.''

Dunblane awoke this morning to an incomprehensible nightmare.

The tiny Scottish city and its residents have descended into the abyss.

The wailing of distraught mothers outside the school gates yesterday morning is now replaced by a chilling silence.

The deserted, cold streets of Dunblane have fallen silent, numbness abounds.

In the carefully-tended gardens, snowdrops and crocuses are beginning to emerge on lawns fringed with the last traces of snow.

Spring was in the air until the madness of yesterday blasted it away.

The families of the dead spent the night attempting to come to terms with the inconceivable — that a loner obsessed with guns shattered their lives forever.

Their homes this morning were places of anguish and bewilderment.

Just 24 hours earlier, they throbbed with laughter and childish excitement.

Mums and dads were asking their kids if they had cleaned their teeth, fastened their shoes and packed their gym kit.

Less than an hour later, the youngsters' brief lives were snuffed out in three minutes of madness, when Thomas Watt Hamilton walked into their primary school and opened fire as they played in the gym.

What happens when the numbness wears off?

The media's descent on Dunblane has put locals on edge. Understandably, they are very touchy and the least, most innocent remark can spark a row as people gather in groups trying to cope.

"Everyone's on edge and people are getting jumpy. The slightest thing sets them off," says Richard Castelow, owner of the Stirling Arms Hotel in the village.

A black mood hangs over the community.

Mr Castelow had a pint of beer thrown in his face by a customer last night.

"He was just looking for someone to blame," he says.

"Two customers had a blazing row over some remark in here. It's like a fuse waiting to go off."

Mr Castelow manned the hotel switchboard for ten hours after the news of the tragedy broke — taking calls from across the world from the media and others wanting information.

"I think all the media being here is getting on the nerves of the locals. All this attention after the terrible tragedy is proving too much.

"This is a nightmare for all of us — a horrifying thing we just can't come to terms with."

People seeking solace drifted in and out of the city's ancient cathedral left open throughout the night.

Candles flickered and prayers were whispered. The atmosphere was thick with disbelief.

If there is a God why has something like this happened, they asked? Just why? Why us and why our innocents, our angels?

The Dunblane Primary School sign was today surrounded by flowers, simple tokens of grief in memory of those who lost their lives.

Local residents have left teddy bears and cards to "our Primary One babes".

One card reads: "May God take better care of you than this world ever can."

No one, least of all the hundreds of reporters in Dunblane, can believe what has happened.

As the names of dead were slowly read out in the make-shift Press hall at Dunblane Town Hall it was an overwhelming sense of unreality which gripped hardened reporters.

The atrocity has left the 7,000-strong community bereft, the nation numbed in disbelief and given the quiet cathedral city a global notoriety.

A shocked neighbour who left a teddy bear and flowers at the school said: "Everyone here feels devastated about what has happened to those poor children."