THIRTY-TWO young lives, full of hope, full of potential, were snuffed out during scenes of unimaginable horror as a gunman brought bloodshed to an American university.
The scale of yesterday's massacre at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg was stunning.
But as details of the cold-hearted executions emerge, together with the accounts of those caught up in the mayhem, our hearts fill with sympathy for those who died or who lost loved ones in those bloody hours.
Let your thoughts be with them today as you go about your business.
April 16, 2007, was a day that will long be remembered with pity and horror.