Cho Seung-Hui, a student from South Korea identified as the gunman who killed 32 people at Virginia Tech University, is seen in this police handout released April 17, 2007. [Reuters]

"He was a loner, and we're having difficulty finding information about him," school spokesman Larry Hincker said.

"We always joked we were just waiting for him to do something, waiting to hear about something he did," said another classmate, Stephanie Derry. "But when I got the call it was Cho who had done this, I started crying, bawling."

With classes canceled for the rest of the week, many students left town, lugging pillows, sleeping bags and backpacks down the sidewalks.

Special coverage: US School Shooting Related Video: 33 dead in US campus shooting Related forum: Family of shooter struggled in S.Korea Va. Tech gunman was from S.Korea China strongly condemns Virginia shooting Gunman kills 32 in US campus shooting Bush: Shootings affect all studentsShooting story spreads quickly on TV

On Tuesday night, thousands of Virginia Tech students, faculty and area residents poured into the center of campus to grieve together. Volunteers passed out thousands of candles in paper cups, donated from around the country. Then, as the flames flickered, speakers urged them to find solace in one another.

As silence spread across the grassy bowl of the drill field, a pair of trumpets began to play taps. A few in the crowd began to sing Amazing Grace.

Afterward, students, some weeping, others holding each other for support, gathered around makeshift memorials, filling banners and plywood boards with messages belying their pain.

"I think this is something that will take a while. It still hasn't hit a lot of people yet," said Amber McGee, a freshman from Wytheville, Va.

Cho - who arrived in the United States as boy from South Korea in 1992 and was raised in suburban Washington, D.C., where his parents worked at a dry cleaners - left a note that was found after the bloodbath.

A law enforcement official who read Cho's note described it Tuesday as a typed, eight-page rant against rich kids and religion. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

"You caused me to do this," the official quoted the note as saying.

Cho indicated in his letter that the end was near and that there was a deed to be done, the official said. He also expressed disappointment in his own religion, and made several references to Christianity, the official said.

The official said the letter was either found in Cho's dorm room or in his backpack. The backpack was found in the hallway of the classroom building where the shootings happened, and contained several rounds of ammunition, the official said.

Monday's rampage consisted of two attacks, more than two hours apart - first at a dormitory, where two people were killed, then inside a classroom building, where 31 people, including Cho, died. Two handguns - a 9 mm and a .22-caliber - were found in the classroom building.

ccording to court papers, police found a "bomb threat" note - directed at engineering school buildings - near the victims in the classroom building. In the past three weeks, Virginia Tech was hit with two other bomb threats. Investigators have not connected those earlier threats to Cho.

Cho graduated from Westfield High School in Chantilly, Va., in 2003. His family lived in an off-white, two-story townhouse in Centreville, Va.

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