Terror hits Aussie varsity

A man armed with several handguns walked into a lecture room at Monash University in Australia, on Monday, shot dead two students and wounde...

A man armed with several handguns walked into a lecture room at Monash University in Australia, on Monday, shot dead two students and wounded five before he was overpowered by the victims’ classmates, police said. The shootings occurred inside the Robert Menzies Building, part of the arts faculty at the Monash University campus around 20 km outside the city centre.

The two dead, both males, were Asian in appearance and the shooting came amid heightened nervousness in Australia a week after bombs killed 180 tourists, many from Australia, in the Indonesian island of Bali. The dead and injured were all students, Monash Vice-Chancellor Peter Darvall told Australian Broadcasting Corp radio.

‘‘We’ve confirmed now that there are two men of Asian appearance both dead,’’ police constable Craig Sharkie said. Another student, 21-year-old Michelle Button also said that the gunman was also of Asian appearance.

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‘‘There are a further five that have been taken by both air and road ambulance to various hospitals around Melbourne.’’ Police said a man had been taken into custody and would soon be questioned over the shooting on the sixth floor of a building at the Monash University campus on the outskirts of Australia’s second largest city. There was no indication of a possible motive.

Police Superintendent Trevor Parks said the students who tackled the gunman had probably averted a much higher death toll: ‘‘The students who actually tackled this person have done a tremendous job and I think we’ve been saved from further death or injury.”