Sept. 14 (Bloomberg) -- Two people died yesterday after a gunman clad entirely in black strode into a Montreal college and opened fire, police officers, witnesses and hospital officials said. The shooter killed one student before dying.

The 25-year-old unidentified gunman, who was from Quebec, injured at least 20 before succumbing to bullet wounds, Montreal spokesman Benoit Couture said in an interview. One person remained in critical condition late last night, he said.

Shooting started in Dawson College's cafeteria at 12:41 p.m. and police arrived 3 minutes later, Yvan Delorme, director of the Montreal Police Service, said at a press conference yesterday. A 20-year-old female student died from gunshot wounds.

Witnesses said a tall, skinny man with a Mohawk haircut and wearing all black, including a trench coat and mask, entered the school carrying a ``large'' gun. Michel Boyer, a student at Dawson, said he heard about 20 shots.

``It was the most frightening moment of my life,'' Boyer, 18, told CBC, Canada's state-owned broadcaster. Police are waiting for the autopsy to determine which exact shots killed the shooter, Delorme said.

Montreal General Hospital will have a press conference today at 7:15 a.m. local time, Montreal Police spokesman Couture said.

`Cowardly and Senseless'

``We have witnessed a cowardly and senseless act of violence unfold,'' Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in an e- mailed statement. ``Our primary concern right now is to ensure the safety and recovery of all those who were injured during this tragedy.''

The shooting may be the worst in Canada since 1989, when Marc Lepine shot 14 women to death at the Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal. Several others were injured that day before Lepine, 25, turned the gun on himself.

Police cordoned off several blocks around 37-year-old Dawson College, located west of Montreal's shopping and financial district, and students were seen fleeing the area and taking cover in nearby apartment buildings.

Police have yet to determine the gunman's motive, Delorme said.

Disgruntled Young Men

``One of the things we can say with certainty is the perpetrators are always young men who appear to be disgruntled,'' Simon Fraser University criminologist Neil Boyd said in an interview from Burnaby, British Columbia yesterday. ``Either because of a personal relationship gone wrong or because of some imagined grievance against the world in general.''

In 1999, students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold shot 13 people to death and wounded more than 20 others before turning their guns on themselves at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history. About a week after the Columbine murders, a 14-year-old boy shot two schoolmates at W.R. Myers High School in Taber, Alberta, leading to the death of one, 17-year-old Jason Lang.

Michelle Gosse, a 24 year-old Dawson College student from Halifax, Nova Scotia, said she and her classmates evacuated the building after one of her friends received a call on her mobile phone to warn her about the shooting.

``There was no alarm, and it seemed there was no organized way to get out of the school,'' she said in an interview. ``When we got out on the sidewalk, I saw a victim. It looked like he'd been shot in the neck.''

Text-Message Warning

Eighteen-year-old Tracy Frem was escorted out of the building by police after she received text messages from friends about a shooting in the building.

``When we came down, we saw blood on the walls,'' she said. ``There were lots of cops, lots of dogs, and bloodstains.''

The English-language school has about 10,000 students, according to its Web site. The Sherbrooke Street CEGEP, as the colleges are known in the French-speaking province of Quebec, is attended by students in between high school and university. Most of the students are 16 to 19 years old.

``All of Quebec is dismayed,'' Premier Jean Charest said in comments broadcast by RDI television. `` We are profoundly sad for the victims, the families, the parents who have children at Dawson. It's a day of great worry.''

(Family members of Dawson College students can call (514) 280-2880 or (514) 280-2806 for more information, police said.)

To contact the reporters for this story: Frederic Tomesco in Montreal at tomesco@bloomberg.net;

Last Updated: September 14, 2006 00:48 EDT