At least 22 people, including the suspected gunman, were killed in a shooting rampage at Virginia Tech university on Monday, police and university officials said.
The rampage took place in two separate areas of the campus during the morning. Police said they believe a single gunman was responsible.
”This is a tragedy of monumental proportions,” Virginia Tech president Charles Steger told reporters.
It was one of the worst shootings on a university campus in the United States since Charles Whitman went to top of the tower in the middle of the University of Texas campus in Austin, Texas, on August 1 1966 and opened fire on people 27 storeys below. He killed 15 people, including his mother and wife the night before, and wounded 31 others.
The Virginia university said on Monday the shooting had left multiple victims and urged students to stay behind closed doors in a university website announcement.
Gunfire first broke out earlier on Monday in a residence on the campus in the small western Virginia town of Blacksburg, and was then heard in a second building, called the Norris Hall.
The school, which has about 25 000 students and is officially known as the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, eventually started evacuating faculty and staff in waves.
”Those on campus are asked to remain where they are, lock their doors and stay away from windows,” said the university as it cancelled all classes for the rest of the day.
The shooting comes just days ahead of the anniversary of the country’s deadliest school shooting at Columbine in Littleton, Colorado, when two students shot dead 12 classmates and a teacher on April 20 1999 before killing themselves.
”All people in university buildings are required to stay inside until further notice,” said the university, located about 425km south-west of Washington, on its website.
Amy Steele, the chief editor of of the student newspaper, told CNN that she had spoken to students in the buildings where the shootings were heard, and was told many were running around in a panic.
”The police officers were trying to, you know, settle everyone down and keep everything under control,” she said. ”One of the injuries happened from a student jumping out of a window.”
Virginia Tech’s website also announced that a reward of $5 000 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.
US media also reported that the start of the academic year in August was marked by another drama when an escaped prisoner tried to hide on the Virginia Tech campus. A security guard and a police officer were killed before the man was re-arrested. — Sapa-AFP, Reuters