A student from South Korea was identified today as the gunman who killed 32 people at Virginia Tech university in the deadliest shooting rampage in US history.
Police said the shooter was Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old senior who was a legal US resident, and that ballistics tests showed one gun had been used in both attacks yesterday at the sprawling rural campus in southwestern Virginia.
Cho killed himself at Virginia Tech after opening fire in four classrooms where in some cases he apparently chained doors to prevent victims from escaping, officials said.
Two people were shot to death two hours earlier at a dormitory. "It's certainly reasonable for us to assume that Cho was the shooter in both places," said Steven Flaherty, superintendent of the Virginia State Police. There was no official word on a motive for the attacks.
But the Chicago Tribunequoted investigative sources as saying Cho, who was studying English literature, left behind an invective-filled note and had shown recent signs of aberrant behaviour, including setting a fire in a dorm room and allegedly stalking some women.
Victims were found in at least four classrooms as well as a stairwell, Mr Flaherty said. "The gunman was discovered among several of the victims in one of the classrooms," he said.
"He had taken his own life."
Cho was a South Korean citizen who had lived in the United States since 1992, said US immigration spokesman Chris Bentley. He and his family lived in Centreville, Virginia. A note believed to have been written by Cho was found in his dorm room that railed against "rich kids," "debauchery" and "deceitful charlatans" on campus, the Chicago Tribunesaid.
The shooting spree renewed heated debate over gun control in the United States, where more than 30,000 people die from gunshot wounds every year and there are more guns in private hands than in any other country.
Even as condolences poured in from world leaders, foreign politicians and media commentators railed against America's "gun culture." In Italy, one newspaper said the shooting was "as American as apple pie."
At Virginia Tech, 12 students remained hospitalized in stable condition today, officials said. Some students were hurt jumping from windows in a desperate attempt to flee the gunfire.
The campus, where there are more than 25,000 full-time students, reeled with shock and grief.
An Irish student attending the college spoke afterwards of how she was warned to stay in doors almost three hours after the first fatal shooting in West Ambler Johnston Hall opposite her dormitory.
"We were about to leave for our 10 o'clock class when we got an e-mail to stay indoors, that there had been another shooting in Norris (Hall)," Nicola Greene told RTÉ Radio.
The shooting rattled nerves elsewhere. A bomb threat caused St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas to cancel all classes and evacuate students and staff to the college's sports fields. Television images of terrified students and police dragging out bloody victims revived memories of the 1999 Columbine High School massacre in Colorado.
"There were leg, arm, head, face (injuries), the more critical ones actually had head or facial shots. There were chest shots, leg shots, arm shots. He was just shooting to kill," said Dr Joseph Cacioppo, an emergency room physician who treated the wounded.
President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush were to attend a memorial service at Virginia Tech later today.