US shooting sends shockwaves around the world

FRANCE: The deadliest shooting rampage in modern US history sent shudders around the world on Tuesday, especially in Seoul after the gunman was identified as a South Korean student.

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

The gunman was identified as Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old student from South Korea with alien resident status in the United States - news that was received with stunned concern in Seoul.

South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun said he was "indescribably shocked ... by the fact that the tragic shooting incident at Virginia Tech on April 16 was caused by a South Korean permanent resident."

He said he and the South Korean people expressed deep condolences to the bereaved families, US President George W. Bush and all Americans.

Roh urged ethnic Korean communities in the United States, together with US citizens, to "wisely overcome" the difficulties created by the tragedy.

South Korean foreign ministry official Cho Byung-Jae hinted at concern over possible reprisals, saying: "We have established safety measures for ethnic Koreans in the US in case of contingencies and are in close consultations with all of our diplomatic missions and Korean communities in the US to implement the measures."

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 wounded, saying universities and schools should be "a sanctuary of learning, friendship and social interchange."

Pope Benedict XVI said he was "deeply saddened" by the "senseless tragedy" and offered prayers for the victims and their families.

In London, Prime Minister Tony Blair expressed the "profound sadness" of Britain and the British people at the "terrible loss of innocent lives", but refused to be drawn on the issue of US gun control.

"It would be completely inappropriate for me to make more general comments about gun laws in respect of America," Blair said.

"That's a situation for America, for the American authorities, for the American people," he added. Gun crime is a hot topic in Britain after three teenagers were shot dead in south London during a two-week spate of shootings earlier this year.

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 United States in 16 years.

In China, Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing 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."

Among other foreign governments to offer condolences was Iran, with which the United States cut ties in 1980 after the seizure of the US embassy in Tehran by Islamic revolutionary radicals.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said the massacre was "against divine and humanitarian values."

French President Jacques Chirac expressed his "horror and consternation" in a statement from his office, while in Brussels, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso voiced profound shock at "the assassination of so many students."

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero sent a telegram to Bush expressing his "solidarity and sadness" over the massacre.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, meanwhile, lamented the death of a Canadian teacher of French, Jocelyne Couture-Nowak, in the shooting.

"It's really almost impossible to comprehend why an individual would take his own life and that of so many others in this way, but I think we can all say that our thoughts are with all the victims, their families and the community," Harper said in parliament.

Paris, Wednesday, AFP