KEY POINTS:
A New Zealand student at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, in the United States last night told how his friend was shot three times in yesterday's massacre.
Nelson exchange student Michael Buschl, 21, said his friend was in hospital but he had not been able to speak to him and he was worried about another acquaintance who was missing.
"I do have a friend that was shot three times. He's alive. He's in hospital," he told TV3's Campbell Live.
"My friend's friend has gone missing. He can't contact him ... his parents can't contact him. So it's pretty crazy over here. It's pretty scary."
Michael said the campus was in shock. He had watched TV reports of the tragedy in his locked dormitory.
When he went out he saw a lot of police and fellow students trying to comprehend the devastation.
"You see people just crying - obviously they've lost friends or something like that," he said.
"It was a pretty sombre atmosphere. Everyone was pretty quiet."
Michael was indoors when the gunman stormed the campus at around 7am (11pm here), and shortly after he heard "the sirens and everything going". But he did not hear the gunshots.
Michael, a keen hunter, had told his father he was concerned about the number of guns in the United States.
His mother, Glenda Buschl, said she was frantic after hearing reports of the rampage.
"We naturally tried to ring him and ring him on his cellphone [but] couldn't get through to him," she said.
"To be honest, I was in operation overdrive, because I was ringing around trying to contact people who might have been able to help us out. It was pretty anxious times all right."
While Mrs Buschl was on the phone to the New Zealand Embassy in Washington at about 7.45am (Washington time), an email came though from Michael saying he was okay, and with it came huge relief.
"He had actually gone to lunch and forgot to take his cellphone with him and he was really sorry about that. [In addition,] he didn't have any money left on his phone to call us.
"Five or six of his mates were still missing and he was really concerned about them."
"He did say when he went to breakfast in the morning that the place was crawling with police, and I can only assume that was between the shootings. They joked about it being a shooting, and I think they really regretted making that statement. They were pretty sober about it afterwards."
Michael, a forest engineering student from Canterbury University, had been studying at Virginia Tech since August, and is due to return to New Zealand in three weeks.
Canterbury University had offered to fly him home earlier, but Mrs Buschl said he had chosen to stay and support his friends. Michael's older sister Michelle had recently visited him and returned only a week ago.
Mrs Buschl and her husband had planned to travel to the United States in a few weeks to see their son.
"This time in three weeks' time I'll have my arms around him very, very tight."
Michael planned to return home with them next month.
