US’s worst school massacre - Gunman kills 32 at university

There were a series of shootouts at the Virginia Tech University, USA, that left 33 people dead (including the gunner).

A gunman dressed in a black leather coat and maroon hat managed to kill at least 32 students at the university on his rampage, before turning the gun on himself and committed suicide. Witnesses have described scenes of mass chaos, whereby students leapt out of the campus windows in an attempt to escape, and some crouched on the floor to avoid gunfire.

There were two separate shootings in the campus on the same day - just two hours apart. The first shootout left 2 people dead (includes the death toll of 33 people). It is not fully clear if the first shoot out was directly linked to the second one.

However, even after the first shootout, the university was not closed, and information on the first shootout was only heard of by email after nearly two hours after the shootout (just before the second shootout occurred).

Most of the deaths occurred in the classrooms, whereby the gunner barged into the classroom and started firing. In one class, only 4 students out of the 25 were left unharmed - the rest were either unconscious or badly injured.

The situation was contained when heavily armed police enforcement arrived at the university campus.