WASHINGTON, (Reuters):

Virginia Tech University officials should have been quicker to notify students and faculty about two killings on campus hours before the deadliest shooting rampage in modern United States history, according to a state report yesterday.

Criticising the university's response, the panel convened by Gov. Tim Kaine said lives could have been saved if officials hadissued an alert after student Seung-Hui Cho shot his first two victims in a dormitory on the morning of April 16. Two hours later, Cho turned up on the other side of campus, where he killed 30 other students and teachers, methodically gunning them down in a classroom building. Kaine called the report thorough and fair.

"What we have to do now is to challenge ourselves to study this report carefully, to make changes that will reduce the risk of future violence on the campus ... and across this nation," he told a news conference.