BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) - A report of a possible gunman at Virginia Tech on Thursday set off the longest, most extensive lockdown and search on campus since the bloodbath four years ago that led the university to overhaul its emergency procedures.
No gunman was found, and the school gave the all-clear just before 3 p.m., about five hours after sirens began wailing and students and staff members started receiving warnings by phone, email and text message to lock themselves indoors. Alerts were also posted on the university's website and Twitter accounts.
Maddie Potter, a 19-year-old from Virginia Beach, holed up inside a campus wood shop, where she had been working on a class project. Staff members locked the doors and turned off the lights.
"I was pretty anxious. We had family friends who were up here when the shooting took place in 2007, so it was kind of surreal," she said. "I had my phone with me and I called both my parents."
The emergency was triggered by three teens who were attending a summer program on campus and told police they saw a man walking quickly across the grounds with what might have been a handgun covered by a cloth, authorities said.
Police searched some 150 buildings on the square-mile campus and issued a composite sketch of a baby-faced man who was said to be wearing shorts and sandals, but they found no sign of him. They continued to patrol the grounds as a precaution even after the lockdown was lifted.
"We're in a new era. Obviously this campus experienced something pretty terrible four years ago," said Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker. He added: "Regardless of what your intuition and your experience as a public safety officer tells you, you are really forced to issue an alert."
It was the first time that the entire campus was locked down since the shooting rampage in 2007 that left 33 people dead, and the second major test of Virginia Tech's improved emergency alert system, which was revamped to add the use of text messages and other means besides email of warning students.
