Australians and a New Zealander were caught up in a mass shooting at a US college campus, escaping harm when a gunman went on a rampage.
The tragedy in the US state of Oregon prompted President Barack Obama to make another impassioned plea for gun control laws, citing Australia's example.
The shooter, identified by US media as Chris Harper Mercer, 26, opened fire on Thursday in a classroom at Umpqua Community College in rural Roseburg, then moved to other rooms gunning down his victims.
He died in a shootout with police, after killing 10 and wounding seven, some critically.
Two Australian basketball players, Staci Richardson and Cody Davison, were just minutes from crossing paths with Mercer.
Mr Richardson, from Melbourne, and Mr Davison, from Queensland's Gold Coast, study at the Umpqua Community College and play on its basketball team.
They planned to be at the library at 10.30am on Thursday to print out an assignment, but a friend asked them to pick him up, so they were late.
The Umpqua Riverhawks team is filled with Australasians, with the coach Daniel Leeworthy from Australia and New Zealanders Tama Green and Jaylen Gerrand on the squad.
Mr Gerrand was uninjured, but was reportedly running alongside another student who was shot dead.
"I was walking past one of my classes and then just heard gunshots, saw people falling pretty much," Mr Gerrand told Radio New Zealand.
He saw someone shot in the head.
"I didn't know who they were ... there was all just a rush of things. I ran until I got out of campus."
A visibly angry Mr Obama made an impassioned plea for gun control in the wake of the shooting, blasting congress for its failure to act in the face of such killings.
"Somehow this has become routine," said the president. "We've become numb to this."
"We are the only advanced country on earth that sees these kinds of mass shootings every few months," he added.
"It cannot be this easy for somebody who wants to inflict harm on other people to get his or her hands on a gun....
"We know other countries in response to one mass shooting have been able to craft laws that almost eliminate mass shootings," he told reporters in Washington, referring to Australia.
Then Australian prime minister John Howard passed gun control laws in 1996 after the mass shooting at Port Arthur, where Martin Bryant killed 35 people and wounded 23.
Federal Acting Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek said Australians do not forget Mr Howard's "courageous and successful efforts on gun control".
"We must remain vigilant in defence of the laws that have protected us and saved lives," she said in a statement.
Former deputy prime minister Tim Fischer said it really was time for Mr Obama to use his last 15 months in office to snap congress into some sensible step-by-step decision making on gun laws.
"The Pope was dead lucky to get through a six-day visit to the USA with no shooting incidents near or in his mass rallies," Mr Fischer, who served under Mr Howard during the Port Arthur massacre, told AAP.
This latest shooting was proof positive the National Rifle Association had paralysed good thinking and policy in the US, he said.
