The bodies of 15 shooting victims were removed from a school in Littleton, Colorado, last night after delays due to fears of booby-trapped explosive devices still in the building and grounds in the aftermath of one of the worst mass shootings in US history.
So far the police have defused 30 bombs left behind in Columbine High School by Eric Harris (18) and Dylan Klebold (17), the two teenagers who killed 12 of their classmates and one teacher. The two youths also shot themselves.
Another 23 students have been admitted to three hospitals in the area, most with severe and numerous gunshot injuries.
When the police arrived, they found one student holding a sign to the window reading: "Help, I'm bleeding to death."
Another student, Richard Castaldo, was among the injured who escaped from the building. Wounded and bleeding, he broke a window on the second floor and began crawling out during the shooting. "He was clearly going to jump out the window. That's how desperate he was," said Mr George Hinkel, a member of the police SWAT team. "We got a radio call saying: `We've got hands coming out of window on the west side.' He was getting out."
With television cameras trained on the student as he dangled from the window, Mr Hinkel's team drove an armoured vehicle beneath him, then pulled him to safety. The student's father said his son was seriously injured with several gunshot wounds, but he expressed hope for his survival. "He plays the tuba so his lungs are strong," said his father.
As prayer vigils were held in churches throughout this suburb, 15 miles from Denver, and as grief counsellors sought to comfort parents and students, the shattered community also tried to understand who these two youths were, and what exactly the designation "Trench Coat Mafia" really meant.
While some media emphasised the group's affection for Nazism, students were quick to point out that it was not an organised group.
Other students coined the name for them, said Ben Lausten (17). "It was just a group of kids who hung out together. It was not a gang."
A picture of the two suspects slowly began emerging, but it raised more questions than it answered. Last year both were charged with a felony in connection with a car theft.
Both were put into a criminal probation programme that helps to avoid serving time in jail.
Another student, Brooks Brown, said that he had been threatened by Eric Harris last year, and that he and his family had gone to the police on two occasions. "We told them he was building pipe-bombs in his garage, but they didn't do anything. They went and talked to his parents but that was it," he said.
He was also aware of Harris's website, which contained a detailed recipe for bomb-making. But again police did nothing, he alleged. Later on, Brooks Brown affected a tentative reconciliation with Harris, a move that may have saved his life. Harris saw him on campus before the shooting and told him to leave, that something was going to happen.
He departed immediately. "He was not somebody to be toyed with," the student added.
Meanwhile, America Online, the popular Internet service provider, dismantled the youth's website and handed over all information on it to the authorities.
In addition, AOL was able to save all the conversations that Harris had had in live online chat rooms. That material was also turned over to police.
AFP adds: Pope John Paul II sent his condolences to the families of the 15 victims of the shooting, the Vatican said yesterday.
"His Holiness Pope John Paul II has been deeply shocked by news of the terrible tragedy which has caused many deaths and injuries at a school near Denver and he asks you to convey to the families and school community the assurances of his prayerful closeness at this very difficult time," said a statement sent to the Archbishop of Denver, Dr Charles J. Chaput.
The Pope called on US society to learn from the tragedy.
"He expresses the earnest hope that American society as a whole will react to this latest act of violence among the young by committing itself to promoting and transmitting "the moral vision and the values which alone can ensure respect for the inviolable dignity of human life," Dr Chaput said.