BEIJING, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao on Saturday sent a message of condolences to U.S. President Barak Obama following the shooting incident at an elementary school in Newtown in the U.S. state of Connecticut on Friday.

Hu expressed profound sympathy with and faithful solicitude to the U.S. government and its people over the school shooting tragedy, and offered condolences to the victims.

On the same day, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi also offered condolences to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over the shooting.

A gunman slaughtered 28 people, including 20 children, at an elementary school in Newtown. The shooting is the second most deadly in the U.S. history, only after the Virginia Tech Massacre in April 2007, which claimed 33 lives.