Student shoots classmate dead and injures three at university in Hungary

DANIEL McLAUGHLIN in Budapest

A HUNGARIAN student shot dead one classmate and injured three other people yesterday at a university in the south of the country.

Police said the gunman was a 23-year-old student at the University of Pecs, where the shooting took place yesterday morning.

The student shot one classmate three times in the chest, killing him, and wounded another student, a teacher and a cleaner, according to local emergency services. One of the victims was in a life-threatening condition last night.

The gunman then fled to the seventh floor of a neighbouring hospital, where he gave himself up to police over the telephone. Police quickly sealed off the area around the university as ambulances sped to the scene to attend to the wounded.

“The students at the biophysics research institute were in a pharmacy class when one of their colleagues began shooting,” said university spokesman Zoltan Gyorffy.

“Both the attacker and the victim were Hungarians,” he added.

Foreign students also attend the university in Pecs, a historic city some 230 km south of the Hungarian capital, Budapest.

Local media reported that the gunman was part of a Pecs shooting club and had permission to hold a handgun.

“His behaviour was absolutely normal,” said Gyorgy Gado, the head of the shooting club. “I am totally shocked.”

First-year students were due to attend a freshers ball at the university last night. The event was cancelled and university officials said they expected a candlelit vigil to be held in its place.

The killing stunned Hungary, where gun crime is relatively rare and mass shootings almost unheard of. Local media quoted other students as saying the alleged gunman had recently been acting strangely and did not get along well with his classmates.

“We do not yet know what led to this horrendous crime. Nobody could prepare for this, but this cannot prevent us doing our best to avoid similar tragedies,” said prime minister Gordon Bajnai.

“I share the pain of the victim’s family and I have hope in a quick recovery for those injured in the tragedy in Pecs.”