Virginia Tech Professor 'died Saving Students'

Alec Calhoun, an engineering student at Virginia Tech, described today an individual act of bravery by one of his professors that saved his life.

Mr Calhoun, 20, had been in Room 204 in the college's Norris hall taking a class in solid mechanics. "We heard what sounded like an enormous hammer. We though it was construction. The scream told us it was something else."

The killer, having murdered two people two hours earlier, had started a shooting spree in the classroom next door. "I thought pretty early on that I was going to die. I started knocking desks over [to make a barricade]. Others were pulling the windows down. It is lucky someone thought of the windows."

The class was on the second floor and the first students to jump were hurt. "I was the eighth to jump. I hung onto the ledge. I saw the professor. I think he was trying to hold the door closed.

"I was the last one out that was not wounded. The two behind me were shot. I jumped onto a bush and fell onto my back. It was about a minute between hearing the shots and jumping out of the window."

He said his professor had been killed.

After reaching safety, he immediately phoned his father, James, a teacher, to tell them he was safe.