USA: Death toll reaches 32 in Virginia Tech shooting according to local media reports

At least 32 people were killed and more than two dozen wounded at Virginia Tech university in the deadliest campus shooting in U.S. history, media said. The death toll continued to rise Monday afternoon (April 16) following the shooting at Virginia Tech. Fox News, CNN and the student-run university newspaper and local television station WVVA gave the death toll as Officials earlier said at least 22 people were killed. The rampage by what police believed was a lone gunman took place in two separate areas, first at a dormitory as students had begun criss-crossing the sprawling campus for morning classes, and then about two hours later at an engineering and science hall a half-mile (0.8 km) away. The attacks sparked panic and chaos. Witnesses told CNN that some students were hurt jumping out the windows of the classroom building to escape the gunfire. The first shooting at Virginia Tech, a state university, was reported to campus police at about 7:15 a.m. (1115 GMT) in West Ambler Johnston Hall, a dormitory housing some 900 students. It was followed by more shooting at Norris Hall, site of the science and engineering school that has given the university much of its fame as a leading technical institute in the United States. Virginia Tech President Charles W. Steger said that his university was "shocked and horrified" by the incident. During the two hours after the first shooting some students had ventured out again. University police were investigating the first shooting at the dormitory when they got word of gunfire at the classroom building. Virginia Tech, with 26,000 students, is located in the town of Blacksburg and set in lush rolling hills in the southwest corner of the state, about 240 miles (390 km) from Washington. Classes were cancelled for Monday and Tuesday and counselors were being brought in to talk to the students. U.S. News & World Report, which produces well-regarded annual ratings of U.S. universities, ranked Virginia Tech's College of Engineering 17th for an engineering school in the United States.

ITN Source | April 17, 2007

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