'The university is horrified'
2007-04-16 19:44
Blacksburg, Virginia - A gunman opened fire in a dorm and classroom at Virginia Tech on Monday, killing 21 people in the deadliest campus shooting in US history.
The gunman was killed but it was unclear if he was shot by police or took his own life.
"Today the university was struck with a tragedy that we consider of monumental proportions," said Virginia Tech president Charles Steger.
"The university is shocked and indeed horrified."
The university reported shootings at opposite sides of the 2 600-acre campus, beginning at 07:15 at West Ambler Johnston, a co-ed residence hall that houses 895 people, and about two hours later at Norris Hall, an engineering building.
Some, but not all, of the dead were students. One student was killed in a dorm and the others were killed in the classroom, said Virginia Tech police chief WR Flinchum.
All classes cancelled
The name of the gunman was not released. It was not known if he was a student.
Before Monday, the deadliest campus shooting in US history took place in 1966 at the University of Texas, where Charles Whitman climbed to the 28th-floor observation deck of a clock tower and opened fire.
He killed 16 people before he was gunned down by police.
In the Columbine High School bloodbath near Littleton, Colorado, in 1999, two teenagers killed 12 fellow students and a teacher before taking their own lives.
After Monday's shootings, all entrances to the campus were closed and classes cancelled.
The university set up a meeting place for families to reunite with their children and made counsellors available. Convocation was planned for Tuesday at the school's basketball arena.
Students 'under lockdown'
"There's just a lot of commotion. It's hard to tell exactly what's going on," said Jason Anthony Smith, 19, who lives in the dorm where the shooting took place.
Aimee Kanode, a first-year student, said the shooting happened on the 4th floor of West Ambler Johnston dormitory, one floor above her room.
The resident assistant in Kanode's dormitory knocked on her door about 08:00 to notify students to stay put.
Kanode said: "They had us under lockdown. They temporarily lifted the lockdown, the gunman shot again.
"We're all locked in our dorms surfing the internet trying to figure out what's going on."
Police said there had been bomb threats on campus over the past two weeks, but said they have not determined a link to the shootings.
It was second time in less than a year that the campus was closed because of a shooting.
Gunman faces capital punishment
In August 2006, the opening day of classes was cancelled and the campus closed when an escaped jail inmate allegedly killed a hospital guard off campus and fled to the Tech area.
A sheriff's deputy involved in the manhunt was killed on a trail just off campus.
The accused gunman, William Morva, faces capital murder charges.
- AP