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A librarian at the primary school in Connecticut where 20 children were killed in a shooting rampage has told how she hid with 18 pupils in a storage cupboard to avoid the gunman.

MaryAnne Jacobs, assistant librarian at Sandy Hook Elementary School, said she followed the usual drill for emergency procedures when suspect Adam Lanza opened fire.

The 20-year-old is believed to have killed 27 people, including his own mother Nancy, before turning the gun on himself yesterday.

Three of the children killed in the massacre have been named in reports as Ana Marquez-Greene, Grace McDonnell and Jesse Lewis, all aged six.

(Image: Reuters)

Mrs Jacobs told reporters how she told the children to be quiet and sit down before taking them initially to a place they thought safe and then to the room normally used to house servers for the library computers.

"We just told them it was a drill, they knew what to do," she said, fighting back tears.

"We knew it was gunshots first all because we made the phone call. I think they were like 'what is that? What is going on' but I don't think they really had any idea.

She added: "They weren't crying.

"We had to crawl out of the space we were in because we discovered one of our doors was unlocked and we locked ourselves in a back storage room where we have some (computer) servers inside the library.

"At that point they were a little freaked out I think, there were some crayons and paper so we tore up paper and gave them all something to do. It was hard to just keep them quiet and calm."

She said they barricaded the door with filing cabinets, only opening it when a police officer slid an identification badge underneath.