33 killed in deadliest US shooting
Tuesday Apr 17 07:00 AEST
By ninemsn staff and wires
A gunman who pumped bullets into a dormitory and classrooms at a US university killed 32 students and injured dozens more before taking his own life in the bloodiest shooting massacre in US history.
Charles Steger, Virginia Tech president, confirmed the death toll at a news conference.
"It is now confirmed that we have 31 deaths from Norris Hall, including the gunman .... There are two confirmed deaths from the shooting in Ambler Johnston Dormitory," Steger said.
Steiger told reporters that 15 people were wounded in the shootings and that the gunman had not yet been identified.
The attacks occured at Virginia Tech University, some 425km southwest of Washington.
Police said the gunman committed suicide after the rampage.
The gunman is believed to have initially stormed the Ambler Johnston dormitory at Virginia Tech, killing two, and then gone on to open fire in Norris Hall, a building housing engineering classrooms, two hours later.
"The gunman took his own life," campus police chief Wendell Flinchum told reporters.
Student Michael O'Brien told Fox News he was walking across the school's drill field when he heard a gunshot and saw students scrambling out of the building.
"You could see students carrying what looked like bodies out of Norris Hall (the engineering building) and there were ambulances out there that drove down to pick them up and sped off towards the hospital."
The White House, which earlier said US President George W. Bush was "horrified" by the carnage, announced he would make at statement at 4:15pm (2015 GMT).
The university earlier reported on its website that a total of 22 people had been confirmed killed, surpassing the 15 who died in the April 1999 shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado that shocked the nation and world.
Even with 22 dead, Monday's shooting rampage is overshadowed only by a 1927 bombing at a Michigan school that killed 38 children and seven teachers.
Police gave only sketchy details of the carnage that started around 7:15am local time when the gunman walked into a dormitory at the 135-year-old university and opened fire, killing at least one person.
The others were killed later in the classroom building. Flinchum gave no details of the horror, but said people died in "multiple locations" in the building.
One student told CNN that the gunman entered the second building, chained the doors closed and began shooting into each classroom.
Local television quoted witnesses as saying the gunman was a young Asian man, but little else was known about the shooter, including whether or not he was a student.
"At this time we believe it was only one gunman. He is deceased," Flinchum said, without elaborating on the circumstances of his death.
Virginia Tech canceled classes and locked down the sprawling engineering and research university which has some 28,000 students and more than 100 buildings spread across 1,040 hectares. The university hosts students from 35 countries and foreign students make up seven percent of the student body.
Counseling centers were set up for students as the authorities evacuated the campus and started the process of recovering from what university president Charles Steger called a tragedy of "monumental proportion."
"The university is shocked and indeed horrified that this would befall us," Steger told a news conference. "I cannot begin to convey my own personal sense of loss over this senseless and incomprehensible heinous act."
The chaos was captured in dramatic cell phone video footage that picked up the clatter of bullets fired in the attack, which came just days ahead of the anniversary of the shooting rampage at Columbine on April 20, 1999.
Television showed heavily armed police rushing across the grounds in a light snowfall while witnesses reported scenes of terror and panic with school officials urging people to stay indoors.
"The police officers were trying to, you know, settle everyone down and keep everything under control," Amy Steele, chief editor of the student newspaper, told CNN. "One of the injuries happened from a student jumping out of a window."
The incident renewed concern over school security and access to guns that was rekindled last year by a rash of shootings. Virginia Tech itself was no stranger to violence.
In August, an escaped prisoner tried to hide on the campus, US media reported. A security guard and a policeman were killed before the man was re-arrested.
Virginia Tech's website also announced that a reward had been posted on Sunday for information leading to the arrest of those behind two bomb hoaxes at the campus on April 2 and 13.
Posted: Tue Apr 17, 2007 8:24 am
