Gunman opens fire on students in Hungary

A student opened fire at a university in the southern Hungarian city of Pecs yesterday, killing one student and wounding three others.

The 23-year-old pharmacology student is reported to have started shooting during a class in the biophysics research institute at Pecs University. The student killed a classmate and injured another student, a teacher and a cleaner, a university spokesman said. Police have arrested a man in connection with the shooting.

The state-run news agency MTI reported that the suspect called police after fleeing to a nearby clinic following the shooting. The agency quoted a Pecs police spokeswoman as saying he used a handgun in the shooting, and was detained within 20 minutes. Many international students attend the university.

Pecs University spokesman, Zoltan Gyorffy, said both the attacker and the killed student were Hungarians. "We do not yet know what led to this horrendous crime," Prime Minister, Gordon Bajnai, said. "Nobody could prepare for this. But this cannot prevent us doing our best to avoid similar tragedies." Witnesses say the scene of the shooting has been closed off.