Abby Zwerner was critically injured in the shooting (Picture: Facebook/Abby Zwerner)

A first-grade teacher who police say was deliberately shot in the chest by a six-year-old boy is showing signs of improvement.

Detectives believe the child got into an ‘altercation’ with Abby Zwerner before shooting her at Richneck Elemtary School in the city of Newport News, Virginia.

She is said to have ‘screamed at her kids to run away’ after the pupil fired a single bullet, according to parent Sebastian Gonzalez-Hernandez, whose son was in the classroom.

‘Even after she’d been shot she was thinking about the safety of her children,’ he told the Mail.

‘She is an amazing teacher, so dedicated. My son absolutely loves her, and we’re devastated about what’s happened. We are all thinking of her and hoping that she gets better soon.’

Ms Zwerner, who is believed to be in her 30s, was rushed to hospital for surgery in a critical condition at around 2pm on Friday.

‘This was not an accidental shooting,’ Newport News Chief Steve Drew told a press conference on Friday.

‘It was in a classroom, an altercation took place there. We did not have a situation where someone was going around the school shooting. We had a situation in one particular location where a gunshot was fired.’

The six-year-old child was said to have got into an ‘altercation’ before shooting Zwerner (Picture: Facebook/Abby Zwerner)

Abby Zwerner’s condition is showing signs of improvement (Picture: Facebook/Abby Zwerner)

He later refused to comment on how the boy got access to the gun or who owns the weapon.

‘This is a red flag for the country,’ Mr Jones said.

‘I do think that after this event, there is going to be a nationwide discussion on how these sorts of things can be prevented.’

A grandmother of one of the pupils claims a child at the school had brought bullets to school and talked about bringing a gun next, although she wasn’t certain it was the same boy.

Superintendent George Parker said the school is able to use metal detectors on pupils, although it doesn’t perform the test routinely.

Police officers were scrambled to Richneck Elementary School on Friday (Picture: Reuters)

‘When we have a perceived threat or issue, we do random metal detection on those days,’ he told a press conference.

‘Today, our students got a lesson in gun violence,’ Parker said. ‘We need to keep the guns out of the hands of our young people.’

A British parent of one of the students, told WTKR: ‘Guns, that’s the biggest problem in this country. Why is there a seven-year-old [sic] with a bloody gun? … How does a seven-year-old have a gun?

‘I’m only here because my husband is in the military. Otherwise, I would not have chosen to come to this country.’  

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Detectives believe the child got into an ‘altercation’ with Abby Zwerner before shooting her in a classroom.