A student from South Korea was identified yesterday as the gunman who killed 32 people at Virginia Tech university in the deadliest shooting rampage in modern US history.
As President George W. Bush led thousands of mourners in a tearful memorial service, a picture emerged of the shooter, Cho Seung-Hui (right), 23, as a troubled loner whose behaviour leading up to Monday's attacks had become increasingly erratic.
Cho, who immigrated to the United States 15 years ago and was raised in suburban Washington, DC, killed himself after opening fire in four classrooms where he apparently chained doors to prevent victims from escaping, officials said.
He was also blamed for the shooting deaths of two other people two hours earlier at a dormitory on the sprawling rural campus in southwestern Virginia.
"It was the worst day of violence on a college campus in American history and for many of you here it was the worst day of your lives," Mr Bush told a crowd at the university's basketball arena where many students wore maroon and orange, the school's colours.
The 10,000-seat Cassell Coliseum was filled to capacity. "Those whose lives were taken did nothing to deserve their fate. They were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time," Mr Bush said as victims' family members sobbed and comforted each other.
The shooting spree renewed heated debate over gun control in the United States and prompted foreign critics to rail against a "gun culture" protected by the Western world's most lenient gun-control laws. In Italy, the leftist Il Manifesto newspaper said the shooting was "as American as apple pie".
After initial confusion, police said ballistics tests showed one gun had been used in both attacks, leaving little doubt that Cho was the lone shooter.
There was no official word on a motive for the attacks. But the Chicago Tribune quoted 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 dormitory room and allegedly stalking some women.