In the US, a six-year-old boy shot and wounded a teacher at a school in Virginia on Friday, during an "altercation" according to police and school officials in the city of Newport News.

The shooting took place inside a first-grade classroom at the Richneck Elementary School but no students were hurt.

What we know about the shooting

The teacher, a woman in her 30s suffered life-threatening injuries, but had shown some improvement in the hospital, Police Chief Steve Drew told reporters.

''We did not have a situation where someone was going around the school shooting,'' Drew said, adding that "this was not an accidental shooting."

The boy was taken into custody by the police, however, no further information was provided about the shooting.

Police said the boy had a handgun inside the classroom and investigators are trying to establish how the boy managed to get hold of it.

City of Newport News in shock

While no children were injured in the shooting, the incident has rocked the city.

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

"My heart stopped,'' Glover told the publication. "I was freaking out, very nervous. Just wondering if that one person was my son," she said.

"I'm in shock, and I'm disheartened," the city's superintendent of schools, George Parker said.

"Today our students got a lesson in gun violence,'' he said, "and what guns can do to disrupt, not only an educational environment, but also a family, a community.''