HK student preparing for finals one of pair killed in Melbourne

A 26-year-old Hong Kong student just a week away from taking his final exams was one of two men shot dead by a gunman at a university in Melbourne on Monday.

The parents of William Wu Xu-hui yesterday flew to Australia after learning their son had been killed along with Steven Chang, 26, whose family is also believed to have come from Hong Kong before moving to Australia several years ago.

The two honours students were shot dead and another five people wounded when the attacker began firing indiscriminately with at least two handguns in a classroom at Monash University, on the outskirts of Melbourne.

Xiang Huan Yun, 36, who used to live on the mainland, appeared in court yesterday and was charged with two counts of murder and five of attempted murder in relation to the shooting on the sixth floor of a building on the university's Clayton campus. He was provided with a Cantonese interpreter when he appeared briefly at Melbourne Magistrates Court, looking tired and dishevelled. He had suffered a black eye.

Xiang was not required to enter a plea and made no application for bail. He was remanded in custody until February. He has lived in Australia for about seven years and had been a student at Monash for the past four. Police confirmed Xiang was a licensed shooter and held valid permits for the handguns.

Chang and Wu were part of a group of 20 students enrolled in an honours course in econometrics and business statistics. Xiang was also on the course and the three men knew each other well, a senior academic said yesterday.

The head of the department of econometrics and business statistics, Professor Keith McLaren, paid tribute to the two murdered students, who were due to take their final exams next week - the culmination of four years' work.