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BLACKSBURG, Virginia - The deadliest school shooting in US history was carried out by a 23-year-old "loner" from South Korea who was studying for an English major, university and police officials said Tuesday.
Police identified Cho Seung-Hui, a legal US resident, as the shooter at Virginia Tech University and said he may have acted alone in killing 32 people before committing suicide on Monday.
Cho was an undergraduate student in his senior year majoring in English, said campus police chief Wendell Flinchum.
He lived on campus at Harper Hall dormitory and his residence was established in Centreville, Virginia outside Washington, police said.
"He was a 23-year-old South Korean here in the US as a resident alien," Flinchum said.
Virginia Tech University Charles Steger told ABC television earlier that two people may have been involved in the shooting, but police later said it was "reasonable" to assume that Cho acted alone.
Larry Hincker, associate vice president for university relations, said officials had difficulty getting information about the gunman.
"He was a loner and we had difficulty finding information about him," he said.
Two bouts of shootings rocked the university in the town of Blacksburg early Monday morning.
Two people were shot dead in an initial shooting in a campus dormitory on Monday around 7:15 am and another 30 were killed in a rampage more than two hours later. Up to 30 others were wounded.
Steve Flaherty, superintendent of Virginia state police, said a 9mm handgun and a 22mm handgun had been recovered.
Flaherty said ballistics tests indicated one of the weapons was used in both shootings but declined to say they had both been carried out by Cho.
"It certainly is reasonable for us to assume that Cho was the shooter in both places, but we don't have the evidence to take us there at this particular point in time," he said.
Student Erin Sheehan, who survived after the gunman barged into her German class and fired repeatedly, told CNN the attacker was of Asian appearance, wearing a short-sleeved tan shirt and black ammunition vest.
He was dressed "almost like a Boy Scout," she said. "He was very silent" as he carried out the attack.
"He seemed very thorough about it, getting almost everyone down. I was trying to act dead," she said. "He left for about 30 seconds, came back in, did almost exactly the same thing."
Local television in this town 425 kilometers (264 miles) southwest of Washington said foreign exchange students had been among the dead and this caused a delay in the release of details while relatives were notified.
The university lists around 2,000 international students from more than 110 countries, including some 1,800 students of Asian origin in the current academic year.
The South Korean Yonhap news agency said a South Korean student was among those hospitalized. There are some 460 students from Korea studying at Virginia Tech, it said.
China's Xinhua agency said there were up to 500 Chinese students at the university. The Japanese embassy in Washington said all 17 Japanese nationals thought to be members of the university were safe, Kyodo news agency reported. - AFP/ir
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