Indian professor among dead in US shootout

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

GV Loganathan, 51, a lecturer at the Virginia Tech Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, was shot and killed by the gunman, his brother GV Palanivel told AP 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 Friday.

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