Indian-origin prof killed in Virginia campus shooting

CNN-IBN
Posted Tuesday , April 17, 2007 at 08:42

New Delhi: As a stunned United States comes to terms with the gruesome shooting on the Virginia Tech University campus that claimed 33 lives, there’s bad news for India as well.

Reports have it that an Indian-origin professor is among those killed in the campus massacre.

Professor G V Loganathan of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering was teaching in a class in the Norris Hall – one of the crime scenes – when the gunman went on rampage.

His colleague Prof Raman Kumar confirmed the news of Loganathan’s death to CNN-IBN.

According to Raman, Loganathan was taking a lecture when the second shooting occurred. He was killed around 0915 hrs (local time), Raman confirmed.

When CNN-IBN contacted a shaken Raman, he was at Lognathan’s residence and said he got the confirmation from the authorities at the University.

However, Raman said no other details were made available and police were not willing to give out any information regarding the deceased or the injured to anyone except the immediate family.

Another of Loganathan's colleagues, Prof Mallika Kumar told CNN-IBN that the news of Prof's deaths broke around 1700 hrs (local time). "Police gave out the information after we tried locating him in local hospitals. I think they are giving out information of those killed one by one," said Prof Kumar.

Remembering Loganathan as a "well-known" professor, Kumar said he was renowned for his teaching techniques and had served the university for over 15 years.

"The Indian community is really supportive at this point of time and lots of students came to pay homage," he added.