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Leaders react to US massacre

An unidentified person is carried out of Norris Hall at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, on Monday after the shooting incident. PHOTO: AP

The deadliest shooting rampage in modern US history sent shudders around the world yesterday, triggering shock and sympathy along with questions over gun culture in the US.

From Australia to Iran, world leaders offered condolences to the victims' families, while voicing their horror at the senselessness of the bloodbath at a Virginia university on Monday that left 33 dead, including an unidentified gunman.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard recalled how a 1996 rampage by a lone gunman in Tasmania that killed 35 people had forced his government to rethink the whole issue of gun control.

"We took action to limit the availability of guns and we showed a national resolve that the gun culture that is such a negative in the United States would never become a negative in our country," Howard said.

He extended his sympathies to the families of those killed and also the wounded, saying universities and schools should be "a sanctuary of learning, friendship and social interchange."

In Canada, Public Security Minister Stockwell Day said "the shock and horror of this act has reverberated" throughout the country, while Liberal Member of Parliament Michael Ignatieff added: "Such a senseless act leaves Canadians stunned and horrified."

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao (劉建超) said Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing (李肇星) had sent a telegram to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressing "shock, condolences and our sincere solicitude to the US government and those affected by the shootings."

In London, Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed the "profound sadness" of Britain and the British people at the "terrible loss of innocent lives."

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II was "shocked" and "saddened," a spokeswoman for Buckingham Palace said.

Along with her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, the queen is set to pay a two-day visit to Virginia early next month to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the Jamestown Settlement, her first visit to the US in 16 years.

Among other foreign governments to offer condolences was Iran, with which the US cut ties in 1980.

The foreign ministry spokesman from Iran, Mohammad Ali Hosseini said the massacre was "against divine and humanitarian values."

Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine was in Tokyo when news of the shooting at Virginia Tech broke and Japan, which has strict gun control laws, was quick to offer its sympathies.

"I would like to express condolences from the bottom of my heart," chief government spokesman Yasuhisa Shiozaki said.

French President Jacques Chirac expressed his "horror and consternation" in a statement from his office.

Chirac "offered US President George W. Bush, the families of the victims and the American people his most sorrowful condolences and his total solidarity, both personally and in the name of the French people," the statement said.

In Brussels, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso expressed his profound shock at "the assassination of so many students."
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