Indian professor among dead at Virginia Tech

New Delhi: An Indian professor was among those killed in a shooting rampage at a US university, his relatives said yesterday, while another Indian student was reported missing.

G.V. Loganathan, 51, a lecturer at the Virginia Tech's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, was shot and killed by the gunman, his brother G.V. Palanivel told The Associated Press from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

Palanivel said he was informed by Loganathan's wife who had identified the body. "For us it was like an electric shock. We've totally collapsed today," he said. "Our parents are elderly and have broken down completely." Loganathan, who was born in the southern Indian city of Chennai, had been at Virginia Tech since 1982.

"Friends and family in the US are helping our sister-in-law deal with the trauma," he said, adding that the funeral would be held in the US according to his brother's wishes and the family would travel there on Friday.

Local media reported an Indian student was missing. CNN-IBN said the student, Minal Panchal, 26, a masters' student in building sciences from Mumbai, was thought to be in the building where the shootings took place.

The station quoted her friends as saying they were unable to contact her and her phone was off.

Indian officials said they were trying to assist the families and determine how many Indian students were involved.

In India, which has some 80,000 students in the US, commentators called for greater protection and stricter gun laws.

Gun laws

"It's not a question of an Indian professor getting killed in the firing. This is related to the American gun laws," said K. Subrahmanyam, a former member of India's National Security Council.

"We can't do anything about it. It is something which has happened in the United States. They have got to change the law."