A NASA contract worker took a handgun inside an office building Friday at the Johnson Space Center in Houston and fatally shot a hostage before killing himself, police said. A second hostage escaped with minor injuries.

"The suspect shot himself one time to the head. He appears to be deceased at this time," Houston police captain Dwayne Ready said at a press conference.

"Also on the same floor, there was one other hostage that was shot. We believe that may have occurred in the early minutes of this whole ordeal. And another hostage that was unharmed (was found) taped, but unharmed and being looked at by our paramedics," he said.

The slain hostage, who was shot in the chest, was probably killed "in the early minutes of the whole ordeal," Ready said.

The gunman was believed to be an employee of Jacobs Engineering, which had a technical support with NASA. "We believe it is one of our employees," said John Prosser, NASA's executive vice president.

Roads within the 1,600-acre campus were blocked off during the confrontation between the gunman and the police.

The unnamed gunman was initially barricaded on the second floor of the building 44 of the space center and police said they heard two shots inside the building. The motive of the gunman was still unknown.

Police had surrounded the building and all employees inside the building were already evacuated.
 
The incident followed the deadly shooting spree at Virginia Tech on Monday that left 33 people dead and bomb threats over the past few days that forced the closure of many schools.

On Monday, Cho Seung-Hui, a Virginia Tech senior majoring in English, shot to death 32 teachers and students at the state university, which is located in Blacksburg, in the southwest of Virginia.

He killed himself after the shooting rampage, the deadliest in US history.

On Wednesday, several buildings of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota were evacuated because of a bomb threat.

All classes in those buildings for the day were canceled, and students were told to return to their residence halls.

Similar threats forced universities and middle and high schools to close down in at least 10 states on Tuesday.

And on Friday, a high school in Los Angeles, California, was ordered kept closed due to what police called "a threat of violence."

(Xinhua News Agency April 21, 2007)