NORFOLK: A six-year-old student shot and wounded a teacher at his school in Virginia during an altercation inside a first-grade classroom Friday, police and school officials in the city of Newport News said.

No students were injured in the shooting at Richneck Elementary School, police said. The teacher, a woman in her 30s, suffered life-threatening injuries. Her condition had improved somewhat by late afternoon, Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew said.

“We did not have a situation where someone was going around the school shooting,” Drew told reporters, later adding that the gunshot was not an accident.

Drew said the student and teacher had known each other in a classroom setting.

He said the boy had a handgun in the classroom, and investigators were trying to figure out where he obtained it. The police chief did not provide further details about the shooting or what happened inside school.

Joselin Glover, whose son is in fourth grade, told The Virginian-Pilot newspaper she got a text from the school stating one person was shot and another was in custody.

“My heart stopped,” she said. “I was freaking out, very nervous. Just wondering if that one person was my son.” Carlos, her 9-year-old, was at recess. But he said he and his classmates were soon holed up in the back of a classroom. “Most of the class was crying,” Carlos said.

Parents and students were reunited at a gymnasium door, Newport News Public Schools said via Facebook.

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