Prof Loganathan from Tamil Nadu among dead in Virginia shootings

Washington, April 17 (UNI) An Indian-American professor, hailing from Tamil Nadu, G V Loganathan was among the 33 people killed in the shooting rampage at the Virginia Tech university.

The news of his death came to light when his wife, living in Blackburn, Virginia, where Virginia Tech is located, called friends to enquire about the welfare of her husband.''I was unable to communicate with him,'' she said.

After colleagues and friends started making enquiries, it was discovered that he was among the dead.

Loganathan, 51, hailed from Karatadipalayam in Gobichettipalayam in Erode District of Coimbatore.

Loganathan, who is survived by his wife and two daughters, was a professor of civil and environmental engineering in Virginia Tech, for the past 15 years.

He received an award for excellence in teaching last year besides numerous other recognitions and was considered one of the department's top ten teachers.

Though there was no official word on Loganathan's death, the family is understood to have been informed by the authorities. None of the wire services or newspapers have carried the list of the dead.

According to rules here, first the family is contacted to inform about the death, then only are their names are released for publication.

Loganathan's brother told an Indian television network that he heard of the death from the professor's wife, who had identified the body. ''We all feel like we have had an electric shock, we do not know what to do,'' he said. Colleagues of Loganathan's also confirmed his death.

Loganathan's colleague, Professor Mallikarjun Kumar told CNN-IBN, ''One of the classrooms he was teaching in were involved in the shoot-out we did not know exactly what was going on.'' ''His wife called up saying we did not hear anything from my husband and are trying to locate him. So we tried the local hospitals and tried to locate whether he is there or not and we could not find him and after that around 5, news broke out that he is among the victims,'' Prof Mallikarjun said.

There were two incidents of firings two hours apart, first at a student dorm where two were killed and at an engineering building where the gunman, a student of Asian origin, shot and killed Loganathan while he was lecturing in a class.

According to unofficial sources, the student shooter was from Shanghai and was on a student visa to study at Virginia Tech. He went to the dorm around 7 am in search of a girl friend, who had ditched him, it seems.

When he knocked on the door, her room mate opened but did not tell him where his friend was. In anger, he shot her immediately and another person who came there on hearing the gun shots. After two hours, the gunman, who was looking for his girl friend, went to the classrooms which were at least half a mile away in the sprawling 2,600 acre campus. He walked into the classroom and opened fire and shot several students at random. Soon after he shot himself in the face.

The police could not identify him immediately because he did not carry any ID on him. His fingerprints also did not match those on the database, meaning he must be on a student visa.

Meanwhile, Indian Embassy in Washington DC has sent consular officials to the university today morning to liaise with Indian students there following the tragedy.

The university's Indian Students Association said it has about 700 members, making it the largest foreign students body on campus.

According to Association President Ajit Pal Singh Raina, most of the Indian student community had been contacted. He did not know of any Indian student being killed.

However, press reports quoted friends of Minal Panchal, a student from Mumbai, saying she was in the building at the time of the shooting and they have been not been able to contact her.

Virginia Tech remains closed while officials identify victims and notify next-of-kin. The university says it will release names of those killed only after that process is complete.

UNI