The gunman who went on a deadly rampage at Virginia Tech had been accused of stalking women students and was taken to a psychiatric hospital in 2005 because of worries he was suicidal, university police said on Wednesday.

The new details added to an already chilling portrait of Cho Seung-Hui, a 23-year-old student from South Korea who massacred 32 people and then took his own life on Monday in the bloodiest shooting spree in modern U.S. history.

Still grieving for the victims, students and teachers have described a sullen loner whose creative writings for his English literature degree were so laced with violence and venom that they alarmed some of those around him.