Jack Gillum, Michael Melia

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Recordings of 9-1-1 calls from the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting show town dispatchers calmly responding to a janitor, a teacher and others and assuring them help is coming.

The operators urge the people inside the school to take cover as they reach out to town officials and state police for help. The operators also ask about the welfare of the children.

A gunman shot his way into the school on the morning of Dec. 14 and gunned down 20 children and six educators with a semi-automatic rifle. He committed suicide as police arrived.

The calls to Newtown police were posted Wednesday on a town website. A court ordered the release of the tapes last week, despite the objections of prosecutors, after a legal challenge by The Associated Press.