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WASHINGTON : A shooting spree believed to be by a lone gunman left at least 22 people dead at a Virginia university on Monday in the bloodiest school shooting in US history, authorities said.
Fox News reported that 32 people were killed and at least 28 wounded in the attacks at Virginia Tech University, a venerable southern institution, but there was no official confirmation.
Police said the gunman had been killed after the rampage in a dormitory at Virginia Tech and a separate, much deadlier, fusillade in an engineering classroom building two hours later.
Student Michael O'Brien told Fox News he was walking across the school's drill field when he heard a gunshot and saw students scrambling out of the building.
"You could see students carrying what looked like bodies out of Norris Hall (the engineering building) and there were ambulances out there that drove down to pick them up and sped off towards the hospital."
The school reported on its web site that a total of 22 people had been confirmed killed, surpassing the 15 who died in a shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado in April 1999 that shocked the nation.
The White House said US President George W. Bush was "horrified" by the school carnage, overshadowed only by a 1927 bombing at a Michigan school that killed 38 children and seven teachers.
"His immediate reaction was one of deep concern for the families of the victims, the victims themselves, the students, the professors and all of the people of Virginia who have dealt with this shocking incident," said spokeswoman Dana Perino.
Police gave only sketchy details of the bloodfest that started around 7:15 am (1115 GMT) when the gunman walked into a dormitory at the 135-year-old university and opened fire, killing at least one person.
The others were killed later in the classroom building. Virginia Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum gave no details of the horror but said people died in "multiple locations" in the building.
"At this time we believe it was only one gunman. He is deceased," Flinchum said, without elaborating on the circumstances of his death.
But authorities also said a search was launched for a second possible assailant as a precautionary measure at the university in Blacksburg, Virginia, some 425 kilometres southwest of Washington, DC.
Authorities cancelled classes and locked down the sprawling engineering and research university which has some 28,000 students and more than 100 buildings spread across 1,040 hectares.
Counselling centres were set up for students as the authorities moved to evacuate the campus and start the process of recovering from what university president Charles Steger called a tragedy of "monumental proportion."
"The university is shocked and indeed horrified that this would befall us," Steger told a news conference. "I cannot begin to convey my own personal sense of loss over this senseless and incomprehensible heinous act."
The chaos was captured in dramatic cell-phone video footage that picked up the clatter of bullets fired in the attack, which came just days ahead of the anniversary of the shooting rampage at Columbine on April 20, 1999.
Television showed heavily-armed police rushing across the grounds in a light snowfall while witnesses reported scenes of terror and panic with school officials urging people to stay indoors.
"The police officers were trying to, you know, settle everyone down and keep everything under control," Amy Steele, chief editor of the student newspaper, told CNN. "One of the injuries happened from a student jumping out of a window."
The incident renewed concern over school security and access to guns that was rekindled last year by a rash of shootings. Virginia Tech itself was no stranger to violence.
In August, an escaped prisoner tried to hide on the campus, US media reported. A security guard and a policeman were killed before the man was re-arrested.
Virginia Tech's website also announced that a reward of US$5,000 had been posted on Sunday for information leading to the arrest of those behind two bomb hoaxes at the campus on April 2 and 13. - AFP/de
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