Lockdown lifted after 2 shot dead at Virginia Tech

An officer secures part of the Virginia Tech campus where a gunman killed two people on Dec. 8, 2011 in Blacksburg, Va. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/Matt...

A gunman ambushed and killed a campus police officer and was later reported to have been found dead on Thursday at Virginia Tech University.

Virginia Tech is the site of one of the worst shooting rampages in U.S. history. In April 2007, 33 people were killed when a student went on a shooting rampage.

Authorities declared the campus safe on Thursday afternoon and lifted a lockdown after a nearly four-hour manhunt, seeming to lend credence to television news reports that a body found in a parking lot was that of the shooter.        

Police at a televised news conference declined to say whether they suspected a murder-suicide and offered no motive for the crime, citing an ongoing investigation.

"Today tragedy again struck Virginia Tech with a wanton act of violence where a police officer was murdered during a routine traffic stop," Virginia Tech president Charles Steger told reporters.

"Words don't describe our feelings."

The incident evoked grim memories of April 2007. A student killed 32 people and wounded 25 before committing suicide on the school's rural campus in the Shenandoah Valley about 400 km from Washington. It was the deadliest attack by a single gunman in U.S. history.

In Thursday's incident, the gunman walked up and shot dead a four-year veteran of the campus police force during a routine traffic stop, police said.

The man then fled on foot toward a nearby parking lot, and a body was later found there along with a gun, police said.

But Sergeant Bob Carpentieri of the Virginia State Police would not confirm that the second body was that of the unidentified gunman. He said, however, that investigators were looking at the possibility that the shooter was linked to an armed robbery earlier in the day in the nearby town of Radford, Virginia.

Police, some in combat gear with assault rifles, swarmed the campus after the shooting, while students and faculty were ordered to hunker down inside university buildings and dormitories. Several hours later, the university declared an end to an "active threat" on campus, telling the college community to "resume normal activities."

The school, formally known as Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, was criticized for its slow response to the 2007 incident and has since put a campus-wide alert system in place.

Classes for the semester ended Wednesday. Exams were to start Friday, but have now been postponed.

Statement from Virginia Tech:

Shortly after 12 p.m. today, a Virginia Tech Police officer stopped a vehicle on campus during a routine traffic stop in the Coliseum parking lot near McComas Hall

During the traffic stop. the officer was shot and killed. There were witnesses to this shooting.

Witnesses reported to police the shooter fled on foot heading toward the Cage, a parking lot near Duck Pond Drive. At that parking lot, a second person was found. That person is also deceased.

Several law enforcement agencies have responded to assist. Virginia State police has been requested to take lead in the investigation

Status of the shooter is unknown. The campus community should continue to shelter in place and visitors should not come to campus.