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At least 32 dead in Virginia shooting rampage

Bron : Reuters.com


A video still shows police officers standing at the scene of a shooting at Virginia Tech university, April 16, 2007 REUTERS/WSLS Roanoke

BLACKSBURG, Virginia (Reuters) - At least 32 people were killed and more than two dozen wounded at Virginia Tech university on Monday in the deadliest campus shooting in U.S. history, media said.

Fox News, CNN and the student-run university newspaper gave the death toll as 32. Officials earlier said at least 22 people were killed.

The rampage by what police believed was a lone gunman took place in two separate areas, first at a dormitory as students had begun criss-crossing the sprawling campus for morning classes, and then about two hours later at an engineering and science hall a half-mile away.
The attacks sparked panic and chaos.

Witnesses told CNN that some students were hurt jumping out the windows of the classroom building to escape the gunfire.

"This is a tragedy of monumental proportions," Virginia Tech president Charles Steger told reporters.

Virginia Tech campus police chief Wendell Finchum said the suspected gunman was dead and that police were trying to determine whether he killed himself or was shot by officers.

"At this time we believe it's only one gunman," said Finchum. Officials did not have a motive for the attack and did not immediately know if the gunman was a student.

Students told CNN there were multiple bomb threats to the campus in the last few weeks. Two of the threats were aimed at the university's science and engineering school.

A U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesman said there was no indication of terrorism but that it would be part of the investigation.

President George W. Bush was "horrified" by the shooting, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

"He was horrified and his immediate reaction was one of deep concern for the families of the victims, the victims themselves, the students, the professors and all of the people of Virginia who have dealt with this shocking incident," she said.

A student journalist's video of the chaos was replayed repeatedly on U.S. television networks, showing people scurrying around the campus and volleys of shots ringing out.

The death toll was worse than a massacre at the University of Texas in Austin on August 1, 1966, when Charles Whitman, a 25-year-old student, killed 13 people and wounded 31 in a 90-minute spree. Whitman had killed his mother and wife the night before.

The first shooting at Virginia Tech, a state university, was reported to campus police at about 7:15 a.m. (1115 GMT) in West Ambler Johnston Hall, a dormitory housing some 900 students.

It was followed by more shooting at Norris Hall, site of the science and engineering school that has given the university much of its fame as a leading technical institute in the United States.

During the two hours after the first shooting some students had ventured out again. University police were investigating the first shooting at the dormitory when they got word of gunfire at the classroom building.

Student Justin Merrifield told Reuters he was outside West Ambler dormitory at 9 a.m. when he saw police and a crying student but did not realize the magnitude of the crisis until he arrived at his 10 a.m. class.

Merrifield said students were alerted by campus loudspeakers.

"There was a voice that just kept repeating, 'Gunman on campus, stay indoors, get away from windows,' over and over, basically," said Merrifield.

One student criticized how university officials reacted after the first shooting.

"I'm pretty outraged that someone died in a shooting in a dorm at 7 O'clock in the morning and the first e-mail about it had no mention of locking down the campus, no mention of canceling classes," Jason Piatt told CNN.

"They just mentioned that they were investigating a shooting," he said.

"That's pretty ridiculous. Meanwhile, while they sent out that e-mail, 21 people got killed."

The shooting was bound to revive debate in the United States about gun violence.

"We live in a society where guns are pretty well accepted," said Jim Sollo, of Virginians Against Handgun Violence. "There are 200 million guns in this society and obviously some in the wrong hands."

Virginia Tech, with 26,000 students, is located in the town of Blacksburg and set in lush rolling hills in the southwest corner of the state, about 240 miles from Washington.

Classes were canceled for Monday and Tuesday and counselors were being brought in to talk to the students.

U.S. News & World Report, which produces well-regarded annual ratings of U.S. universities, ranked Virginia Tech's College of Engineering 17th for an engineering school in the United States.

FACTBOX-Shootings at U.S. schools
FACTBOX-School shootings around the world

Debate over U.S. gun violence

(Additional reporting by Peter Szekely, John O'Callaghan, Sandra Maler, David Storey and David Wiessler)