Loner student guns down classmates

A talented student, known as a loner who struggled with the English language, gunned down two fellow students at a Australian university today -- the day he was due to make his final presentation.

Police quickly ruled out any link to terrorism and the Bali bombings.

The commerce student, in his 30s and of Asian descent, was almost at the end of four years work for his honours degree.

But instead of carrying his presentation papers to Monash University in Melbourne today, he took with him a semi-automatic pistol and a revolver.

Within seconds of entering the class in the economics department, he opened fire, killing two students instantly and injuring eight others.

He was wrestled to the ground by other students and arrested by police.

Students said the gunman was a loner whose lack of English often left him frustrated and confused.

“Lecturers struggled to understand his questions, and he used to get really annoyed,” one classmate told the Sydney Morning Herald . “He would usually sit by himself in tutorials and generally kept to himself.”

He was becoming increasingly isolated. “He blamed tutors for not being able to understand him,” said another student.

“He was in the possession of a number of handguns,” Police Superintendent Trevor Parks said. “He went into a classroom. It would appear there has been indiscriminate shooting following that.” Police did not say what the motive appeared to be for the killings.

Supt Parks said two Asian men in their early 20s were killed and five others admitted hospital, one with serious injuries to the stomach. Another three people suffered minor injuries.

Monash University Vice chancellor Peter Darvall praised the actions of the “brave souls” who wrestled the gun off the attacker.

The gunman lived with his mother in a flat near the university. Neighbours said he had few visitors, was polite, but spoke rarely. .

Michelle Duffie, 31, an arts student, was in the middle of an exam on the third floor.

He said: “I heard two bangs ... a teacher came into our classroom and said ’two people are dead, two are critically injured, get out of the building now’.

"As we came down ... we actually saw the guy as they arrested him.”

His expression “wasn’t as if he’d done something extreme or looked remorseful. It was more like a reaction of ’I don’t want people to look at me’.”