A six-year-old pupil shot and wounded a teacher during an altercation inside a classroom in Virginia, US police and school officials have said.

No students were injured in the shooting at Richneck Elementary School in the city of Newport News, police said.

The teacher, a woman in her 30s, suffered life-threatening injuries.

Newport News police chief Steve Drew told reporters that her condition had improved somewhat by late afternoon.

Police said the child had a handgun in the classroom and that they took that student into custody.

“We did not have a situation where someone was going around the school shooting,” Mr Drew told reporters.

“We have a situation in one particular location where a gunshot was fired.”

He added that the shooting was not an accident.

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

Newport News is a city of about 185,000 people in south-eastern Virginia known for its shipyard, which builds the nation’s aircraft carriers and other US Navy vessels.

Richneck has about 550 students, according to the Virginia Department of Education’s website.

School officials have already said there will be no classes at the school on Monday.