Lanza, 20, had lived there for 14 years before going on gun rampage

Town council, which was given empty home, voted to destroy it

The house where Sandy Hook killer Adam Lanza began his murderous gun rampage has been demolished.

Councillors in Newtown, Connecticut, decided to knock down the large, picturesque house on Yogananda Drive, and tear apart its foundations, to stop it being a 'constant reminder' of Lanza's brutal 2012 massacre.

Lanza, 20, gunned down his mother, Nancy, inside the home before moving on to the Sandy Hook Elementary School, where he murdered 20 first-graders and six members of staff.

Demolition: Police watch as wrecking machinery finishes work on Yogananda Drive in Newtown, Connecticut, where Adam Lanza began the murderous Sandy Hook rampage by killing his own mother

Before: The 3,100-square-foot home was set in two acres of its own land in the exclusive town. Newtown authorities were given the house by the bank which acquired it, and voted to destroy it

Killer: Lanza, pictured above in two photos from some time before the 2012 killing, spent most of his time inside the house after dropping out of school

The killer spent most of his life at the home, which his parents bought in 1998 before they divorced.

In the years leading up to the horrific shooting, Lanza spent increasing amounts of time inside its walls, where he spent hours playing video games, and would communicate with his mother by email.

An exhaustive report into Lanza's life by state officials concluded that he was allowed to slip into a 'padded' world, in which he rarely had contact with the outside world - which may have contributed to the killings.

No more: The home, pictured above four days after the December 2012 killing, had already been completely emptied and everything inside burned in the hope of preventing a trade in looted Sandy Hook memorabilia

Gone: Plans by the Newtown council call for the plot to be left empty and greenery planted there

Parents: Nancy Lanza, right, lived with her son in the home. Her ex-husband, Peter Lanza, left, lived in Newtown with them until he divorced Nancy

Lanza, who was on the autism spectrum and had other psychiatric problems, turned on his mother at the start of the December 14 rampage.

He then drove to Sandy Hook and rampaged through classrooms, opening fire at young children and the teachers who tried to defend them.

Lanza shot himself in the head just as police were arriving at the scene.

Once the wreckage of the house, its driveway and foundations are removed, the space will be left empty.

Demolition work began Monday, and the house has already been pulled down.

Horror: Children are pictured above being led out of the school by their teachers on the day of the massacre

Aftermath: First responders are pictured above at the scene. Lanza shot himself in the head when police arrived

The town was given the 3,100-square-foot home, and its 2-acre lot, by a bank which acquired the property from the Lanzas.

Bank officials had already gone inside and incinerated everything they could find, to stop any of the family's possessions becoming sick memorabilia of the massacre.

The decision to rip down the house was made in late January, prompted in part by pleas from haunted neighbors.

One, Dave Ackart, said: 'Not only is the property a constant reminder of the evil that resided there - those of us who walk, run, drive, ride or otherwise must pass it multiple times a day, are having a hard time moving on.'

The plans call for the landscaped lot to be leveled later in spring, and new greenery planted.

Victims: Pictured above are 25 of Lanza's victims, including his mother (bottom right)



