US:Three Irish engineering students who are on exchange in Virginia Tech university escaped injury in yesterday's mass shooting.
The third-year students from University College Dublin, on a year-long exchange programme, were said to be safe and well in their college dormitories.
A spokeswoman for UCD said last night that the students' parents and college officials had been in contact with them over the course of the day.
One of the students, Nicola, e-mailed the BBC website, describing the sense of shock that had taken over the college campus.
"A murderer on campus on our first day here is as bad as it could get, this is unbelievable," she wrote. "Find it hard to believe that 20 people can really be dead. Sitting in dorms right now, waiting for further news. People starting to be released, seems worst may be over."
UCD officials offered to fly the students back to Ireland if they wanted. However, the students indicated yesterday that they wished to remain in the US to complete their studies.
A spokeswoman was unable to provide the names of the students, although one of them is believed to be from Gorey, Co Wexford.
The university has an exchange programme with Virginia Tech for students completing the biological systems engineering course.