At least 30 die in shooting spree

A gunman opened fire in a dorm and classroom at a US university today, killing at least 30 people in the deadliest shooting rampage in US history.

The gunman was killed, bringing the death toll in Blacksburg, Virginia, to 31, 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 name of the gunman was not immediately released, and investigators offered no motive for the attack. It was not immediately known if the gunman was a student.

FBI spokesman Richard Kolko in Washington said there was no immediate evidence to suggest it was a terrorist attack, “but all avenues will be explored.”

The shootings spread panic and confusion on campus, with witnesses reporting students jumping out classroom windows to escape the gunfire. Students and faculty members carried out some of the wounded themselves, without waiting for ambulances to arrive, and police with flak jackets and assault rifles swarmed the campus.

The bloodbath took place at opposite sides of the 2,600-acre campus, beginning at about 11.15am (GMT) at West Ambler Johnston, a residence hall that houses 895 people, and continuing about two hours later at Norris Hall, an engineering building.

Police said they were still investigating the shooting at the dorm – and the campus was under lockdown, with students told to stay indoors and away from windows – when authorities got word of gunfire at the classroom building.

Some of the dead were students. One student was killed in a dorm and the others were killed in the classroom, a police chief said.

Before today, 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.

The deadliest mass shooting in US history was in Killeen, Texas, in 1991, when George Hennard drove his pickup into a Luby’s Cafeteria and shot 23 people to death, then himself.

A gasp could be heard today at a campus news conference when the police chief said at least 20 people had been killed. Previously, only one person was thought to have been killed on the campus, which has 25,000 full-time students.

Investigators began marking and recovering the large number of shell casings and will trace the weapon used, according to an ATF official who spoke on condition of anonymity because local authorities are leading the investigation.

A White House spokesman said President George Bush was horrified by the rampage and offered his prayers to the victims and the people of Virginia.

“The president believes that there is a right for people to bear arms, but that all laws must be followed,” spokeswoman Dana Perino said

After today’s shootings, all entrances to the campus were closed and classes cancelled for tomorrow. The university set up a meeting place for families to reunite with their children and made counsellors available.

“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 12pm (GMT) to notify students to stay put.

“They had us under lockdown,” Kanode said. “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,” Kanode said.

Madison Van Duyne, a student who was interviewed by telephone on CNN, said, “We are all in lockdown. Most of the students are sitting on the floors away from the windows just trying to be as safe as possible.”

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.

The rampage took place on a brisk spring day, with snow flurries swirling around the campus, which is centred around a grassy field where military cadets - who now represent a fraction of the student body – once practised. The dorm and the classroom building are on opposites sides of the Drill Field.

It was second time in less than a year that the campus was closed because of a shooting.

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 murder charges.