18 Dec 2012

First funerals in Newtown

10:14 am on 18 December 2012

The first funerals from Sandy Hook School were held in Newtown, Connecticut, on Monday.

Noah Pozner and Jack Pinto, both aged six, were after ceremonies starting at 1pm local time.

Twenty children and six women died in the assault on Sandy Hook school by a lone gunman who then took his own life. He had earlier killed his mother.

Jack will be buried in the Newtown village cemetery and Noah will be buried at the B'Nai Israel Cemetery in the nearby town of Monroe. He was the youngest to die.

The family of James Mattioli, six, is also holding a wake on Monday.

Other funerals will be held throughout the week and the town has begun removing Christmas decorations, replacing them with memorials for the dead.

Gunman Adam Lanza, 20, was armed with hundreds of rounds of ammunition. He used a semi-automatic rifle and was also carrying two handguns. A shotgun was also found in his mother's car.

All the dead were shot several times.