Lecturer 'saved students' lives'
2007-04-17 12:08
Jerusalem - An Israeli lecturer who died in the massacre at a US university saved the lives of several students by blocking the doorway of his classroom from the approaching gunman before he was fatally shot, his relatives told Israeli media on Tuesday.
Students of Liviu Librescu, 75, a lecturer in mechanical engineering at Virginia Tech for 20 years, sent e-mails to his wife telling of how he blocked the gunman's way and saved their lives, said the wife, Marlena Librescu.
He loved his job with "all his heart and his soul", she told the NRG news website. After she was told in a phone call that he was injured, she looked for him in several hospitals, but could not find him.
The couple immigrated to Israel from Romania in 1978 and then moved to Virginia in 1986 for his sabbatical, but had stayed since then, their son, Joe Librescu, told Army Radio.
In Monday's massacre, a gunman killed 32 people at the Virginia university before committing suicide.
It was the deadliest shooting rampage in modern US history.
- AP