AUSTRALIA: Homicide detectives in Melbourne were questioning a man last night after a shooting rampage left two people dead at the city's Monash University.
Police said a man of Asian appearance walked into the college's Clayton campus at around 11.20 a.m., armed with several handguns and went into a classroom on the sixth floor. He shot dead two Asian males and injured five others in the room.
According to the police, the gunman was an economics student at the university. A female student told ABC radio she was on the floor above when the shooting began.
"I heard a very large bang, which at first I didn't take to be a gunshot, and I heard some people screaming, and I thought, I wonder if anyone's hurt themselves, I'll run downstairs and see if I can help," said the student, named only as Lauren. "I saw a large pool of blood, probably about the size of a dustpan lid, and then this lady just started screaming, saying 'there's a gunman, there's a gunman, everybody get downstairs', so we all just started to run downstairs."
Another student said he was in the building at the time of the shooting. "It was all a bit of a shambles. We were just sitting in our office on the south wing and one of our colleagues from the second floor came down and said 'Quick, there's a guy in there with a gun on the fifth or sixth floor'," he said.
Monash University's vice-chancellor Mr Peter Darvall said the death toll could have been higher if students had not wrestled the gunman to the ground.
"Somebody seems to have started shooting and people have been killed and injured and some brave souls wrestled this person down," Mr Darvall said.
"Our security were on hand pretty quickly and police in numbers were on hand pretty quickly."
Mr Darvall said students and staff were understandably distressed.
The Labor leader, Mr Simon Crean, said he wished the survivors a speedy recovery and thanked those who apprehended the gunman.
The Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, said those who tackled the killer should be recognised for their bravery.
"The loss of any life in such violent circumstances is always a matter of regret, especially so when it is young and I share all of the sentiments expressed by the leader of the Opposition, particularly about the behaviour of the people who apprehended the gunman," Mr Howard said.
Supt Trevor Parks of the Melbourne police said it appeared the shooting was not related to any sort of terrorist activity.
This was the sixth gun rampage in Australia in the last 15 years.