S.Korean student blamed for US shooting rampage

Blacksburg, Virginia: The gunman who killed 32 people and then himself at Virginia Tech university on Monday was identified by police on Tuesday as Cho Seung-Hui, a South Korean studying at the university.

Police said Cho was 23 and was studying English literature. They gave no motive for the shooting rampage, the worst in US history.

Police said one of two guns recovered was used in both of the two separate shooting incidents at the campus that killed a total of 33 people, including Cho.

"The evidence has not led us to say with all certainty that the same shooter was involved in both shootings," Steven Flaherty, superintendent of the Virginia State Police, told a news conference.

Victims were found in at least four classrooms as well as a stairwell, he said.

"The gunman was discovered among several of the victims in one of the classrooms," Flaherty said. "He had taken his own life."

Police said the gunman appeared to have used chains to lock doors and prevent victims from escaping. Fifteen people were wounded, including those shot and students hurt jumping from windows in a desperate attempt to flee the gunfire.

The rampage sent the sprawling rural campus, where there are more than 25,000 full-time students, into shock and grief.

President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush were to attend a memorial service at Virginia Tech later on Tuesday.

On Monday, Bush expressed shock and sadness about the killings. He lamented that schools should be places of "safety, sanctuary and learning."

"When that sanctuary is violated, the impact is felt in every American classroom in every American community,"
Bush said at the White House.

Television images of terrified students and police dragging out bloody victims revived memories of the Columbine High School massacre in 1999 and were likely to renew heated debate about America's gun laws.

Many students expressed anger that they were not warned of any danger until more than two hours after the first attack at a dormitory - and then only in an e-mail from the university.

The 9:26 e-mail had few details: "A shooting incident occurred at West Amber Johnston earlier this morning.
Police are on the scene and are investigating."

"We knew that there was a shooting but we thought it was confined to a particular setting," Charles Steger, the university president, said on Monday.

Steger defended campus police from criticism they failed to take adequate safety measures after the first shooting.

"They have worked very professionally and handled this as skillfully as anybody might be able to do it," he said.

The first shooting was reported to campus police at about 7:15 a.m. (1115 GMT) in West Ambler Johnston Hall, a dormitory housing some 900 students. Two hours later, dozens of shots were fired a half-mile away at Norris Hall, site of the science and engineering school.

India on Tuesday called the campus shooting spree in the United States a "terrible tragedy" and mourned the death of an Indian professor who was among the 33 people who died.

"It's a terrible tragedy that has happened," India's junior foreign minister Anand Sharma said in New Delhi.

Sharma confirmed that G.V. Loganathan, a 51-year-old professor who was teaching civil and environmental engineering at Virginia Tech University, died when the shooting broke out on the campus.

An Indian student, Minal Panchal, has been missing since the bloody attack .