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Virginia Tech police chief: No further sightings
Virginia Tech university, site of the 2007 shooting that killed 32 people, has been put on lockdown after the possible sighting of a gunman.
An alert was issued on the university website after three children attending a camp at the university reported seeing a man possibly carrying a gun.
“Person with a gun reported near Dietrick. Stay inside. Secure doors,” said the 09:37 (13:37GMT) alert.
There are no reports of any shots having been fired.
In April 2007, Cho Seung-hui shot dead 32 people on a two-and-a-half-hour rampage before killing himself.
Three children reported on Thursday morning seeing a white male with brown hair outside New Residence Hall East, holding what “may have been a handgun”, a statement on the Virginia Tech website said.
“They [the children] say the weapon was covered by a cloth or covering of some sort. He was walking fast in the direction of the volleyball courts,” the statement added.
No other witnesses have reported seeing the man or anything suspicious.
Police from Virginia Tech and the towns of Blacksburg and Christiansburg were searching the campus, said the university website.
The children said the man was wearing a blue-and-white striped shirt and sandals, Larry Hincker, a vice-president at Virginia Tech, told a news conference held in front of the university.
He said the university had issued the alert immediately because it wanted to “speak first and investigate later”.
“Regardless of what your intuition and your experience as a public safety official tells you, you’re really forced to issue an alert,” Mr Hincker added.
Wendell Flinchum, the university’s police chief, told reporters that no-one was under arrest and the alert would stay in effect until the matter was resolved.
“The alert that went out asked people to go inside, secure themselves until further notice and that’s what we’re still asking people to do,” Mr Flinchum said.
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Virginia Tech put on ‘gun’ alert