America witnessed its deadliest peacetime shooting massacre when a gunman killed more than 30 people yesterday at Virginia’s biggest university.

The first shots were fired in a dormitory at Virginia Tech at about 7.15am yesterday, killing at least two people.

Two hours later a gunman continued the rampage in an engineering classroom on the other side of the campus, killing 30.

A lone male, believed to have been responsible for the carnage in the classroom, later turned the gun on himself. Police said that they were still investigating the links between the shootings.

There were unconfirmed reports that the killer was an Asian man in his twenties who may have believed that his girlfriend was unfaithful.

By early today the death toll had risen to 33, with a further 26 people injured.

University authorities and police struggled to explain why they had allowed students on to the campus after the first shootings and failed to issue proper warnings.

The internet was also buzzing with postings of survivors’ tales, including a dramatic description of students barricading themselves inside a classroom while the killer tried to shoot his way in.

Speaking from the White House President Bush told a press conference: “Our nation is shocked and horrified.” The Queen said that she was “shocked and saddened “by the shooting.

The massacre began when a lone gunman entered a dormitory at Virginia Tech.

He killed a man and a woman on the fourth floor of the West Ambler Johnston Hall, one of the biggest halls of residence with sleeping quarters for 895 students. There was “mass chaos”, one undergraduate said — “lots of students running around, going crazy”.

At 7.15am the first emergency call was made. Police cars and ambulances rushed to the scene and armed teams fanned out around the hall, on the southwest side of the 2,600-acre campus, trying to find the gunman amid swirling snow.

Times Recommends

• Would you live on the wrong side of the Berlin Wall?
• Wish you were here, says Iraq tourist board
• Russian policeman’s corruption plea to Putin