Ramon Cruz (centre), a freshman at Virginia Tech, kneels at a memorial to the shooting victims at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, yesterday. Comforting Cruz is Gigi Giridhar (left), the mother of Cruz's best friend Sanjay (behind), also a freshman at the school. - Reuters

BLACKSBURG, Va. (Reuters):

The gunman who went on a deadly rampage at Virginia Tech university had been accused of stalking women students and was taken to a mental health facility in 2005 because of worries he was suicidal, police said yesterday.

The new details added to a chilling portrait of Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old South Korean student who massacred 32 people and then took his own life on Monday in the deadliest shooting spree in modern U.S. history.

Still grieving for the victims, students and teachers have described a troubled, brooding loner whose writings for his English degree were so laced with violence and venom that they alarmed some of those around him.

University Police Chief Wendell Flinchum said his officers confronted Cho in late 2005 after two women students complained of unwelcome phone calls and instant messages from him.

"I'm not saying they were threats; I'm saying they were annoying. That's the way the victims characterised them, as annoying messages," Flinchum told a news conference at the sprawling campus in southwestern Virginia.

After the second incident, Cho's roommate told police he "might be suicidal," prompting them to issue a "temporary detention order" and send him to a mental health facility, Flinchum said. It was unclear how long Cho stayed under evaluation.

The two women declined to file charges against Cho, and neither was among the victims of Monday's shooting rampage, police said.

WARNING SIGNS?

CHO

Despite his encounters with campus police, Cho was able to legally purchase the two handguns he used in the deadly rampage. The shooting has rekindled debate over U.S. gun laws, the most lenient in the Western world.

News of Cho's past contact with police and mental health specialists added to accounts of erratic behaviour and raised questions over whether anyone could have picked up warning signs.

Poet Nikki Giovanni, who teaches at Virginia Tech, told CNN that she had insisted that Cho be removed from her class in 2005 because he had intimidated other students by photographing them and by writing obscene, violent poetry.