US mourns for Virginia victims

FOR THEIR SOULS: Students paid tributes at a temporary memorial at the Virginia Tech.

Featured Blog

Rajdeep Sardesai

26/11: Terror comes precariously close

Featured Slideshows

New Delhi: The US marked a day of mourning for victims of the Virginia Tech shooting on Friday.

Virginia Governor, Timothy Kaine declared Friday a day of mourning and called for a moment of silence at noon to honour the 32 victims in Monday's massacre at Virginia Tech.

Students paid tributes at a temporary memorial at the Virginia Tech. Moments of silence were observed on the trading floors of financial markets in New York and Chicago.

In the US Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid announced the remembrance.

Church bells rang out from coast to coast to mark the tragedy. Friday was also the eighth anniversary of the shooting at Columbine High School in Colorado in which 15 people died in 1999. Like every year, the school stayed closed.

"We want the world to know and celebrate our children's lives, and we believe that's the central element that brings hope in the midst of great tragedy," said Peter Read, whose 19-year-old daughter, Mary Karen, was killed. "These kids were the best that their generation has to offer."

Meanwhile, private funeral ceremonies were held on Friday for two international students killed in the massacre.

Egyptian Waleed Mohammed Shaalan and Partahi Mamora Halomoan Lumbantoruan, a civil engineering doctoral student from Indonesia, also will have funerals in their home countries.

Reid also urged television stations to stop broadcasting the gruesome, hate-filled videos and photos of Cho, the 23-year-old English major responsible for the attack.

Police said they were disappointed that NBC television, which received the materials in the mail on Wednesday opted to broadcast them. Major networks pledged to scale back their use of the material.

The videos revealed a man angry at the world but offered little explanation of why, other than rambling tirades against rich children, snobs and people who had wronged him.

(With inputs from agencies)