Suspect in Pécs campus shooting placed under preliminary arrest

A court of the city of Pecs (S Hungary) has ordered the pre-trial detention of the young man who shot four people, killing one of them, at Pecs University earlier this week, Judge Istvan Hajdu told the press on Saturday.

The 23-year-old pharmacology student gave himself up shortly after firing shots at his classmates, a lab worker and a cleaning woman in the biophysics research centre of the university just before noon on Thursday. His motivation is still unknown.

The suspect will be placed in detention for 30 days, the judge said. The suspect did not make an official statement during the session, he added.

Defence solicitor Zoltan Visegrady said his defendant was in no state to give a statement but he would do so next week.

The university's dean has said that preliminary tests suggest the student may be suffering from latent schizophrenia and was "not of sound mind" when he fired the shots.

Visegrady said there would be a thorough investigation of the suspect's background, including his relationship with psychiatrists with whom he had contact. The assailant was a member of a local shooting club and held permission for the handgun he used in the shooting.

The lawyer refused to respond to journalists' further questions on the state of the defendant's mental health.

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