Sandy Hook 911 calls reveal how school staff sought help

The Emergency calls that first alerted police to the massacre at Sandy Hook elementary school have been made public.

Twenty children and six of their teachers were killed by a single gunman almost a year ago.

ITV News International Editor Bill Neely reports from the US

This video contains distressing audio from the emergency calls.

Gilles Rousseau, whose daughter Lauren, a substitute teacher, was killed in the Sandy Hook school shootings, supported the decision to release the 911 call recordings.

Speaking to ITV News before their release, he said: "Personally, I think it's better to have it released because then the world will know what was in the tape. They'll know that the police is not hiding anything.

"I would like to know exactly what was in the tape. The only thing that I'm hoping for is that I don't hear my daughter screaming," he added.

"That's one of the reasons the young families did want to hear their kids screaming. They were afraid they were going to recognise their particular child, and that would be heart-wretching."

In one recording released by US authorities, a teacher at Sandy Hook Elementary School tells emergency operators she has heard shooting.

"It sounds like there are gunshots in the hallway. I'm a teacher at the school," she says.

"Keep everybody calm, get everybody away from the windows," she is told. "Try to lock down the school, OK?"

In one of the recordings released, a distressed caller is heard saying: "I think there’s somebody shooting in here at Sandy Hook School."

"What makes you think that?" she is asked.

"Because somebody's got a gun. I saw a glimpse of somebody, they're running down the hallway," she replies.

"They're still running, they're still shooting."

In an emergency call from Rick Thorne, whose job title at the time was Acting Head Custodian at Sandy Hook, gunshots are heard as he pleads "it's still going on!"

"I keep hearing shooting. I keep hearing popping," he tells the operator.

Thorne also describes how he thinks the gunman entered the building: "The front glass is all shot out. It kept going on," he says.

During the call the operator is heard asking a colleague to alert state police to the "active shooter".

Towards the end of the recording, loud bangs are heard in the background. This has been edited out of the clip above.

A court order has forced the publication of recordings of emergency calls made to police during the Sandy Hook school shootings in Connecticut, USA, last year.

Operators can be heard responding to witnesses including a teacher and a caretaker who report hearing gunshots.

Prosecutors had tried to block the release of the audio files but a legal challenge from the Associated Press news agency ensured the recordings were made public.

Former pupil Adam Lanza, 20, fatally shot 20 schoolchildren, six members of staff, his mother and himself on 14th December 2012.