A reported gunman seen at Virginia Tech this morning has inundated Twitter with alerts, best wishes and hysteria.
At about 9:09 a.m., three children around the age of 14 claimed they saw a man on campus with a handgun while they were attending the Higher Achievement camp, police said.
An e-mail alert was sent out to all students telling them to stay indoors while police searched for the man.
In the meanwhile, hordes of people took to Twitter with flashbacks of April 16, 2007, massacre where 32 people were killed on campus. That incident is considered the deadliest single gunman shooting incident in history, said MSNBC.
“Not again,” tweeted Lauren Wolfe, senior editor at the Committee to Protect Journalists.
“I pray all ends well on the Virginia Tech campus,” tweeted Donice Boatwright. “No one should have to endure the exact same tragedy twice.”
During an 11 a.m. news conference on campus, police announced that no one was in custody and the man described by the children had not been found. University officials instructed anyone on campus to stay indoors and venture outside with caution.
With everything seemingly under control, words and hashtags like #vtech, lockdown and Virginia Tech were popular with people eager to put the school on their “do not attend” list.
“Everybody needs to transfer out of Virginia Tech,” tweeted Mellisa. “Something ain’t too right around those parts.”
“VTech is one school I wouldn’t risk going to,” tweeted exclusi.
“My cousin need to transfer,” tweeted Neichelle Chloe. “It’s not too late. She goes back to #Vtech on the 19th.”
“Scratching Vtech off my list of possible grad schools,” tweeted Shawnie.
“People gonna learn to go to school somewhere else,” tweeted Desmond Turner.
“Definitely not letting my kids go to VTech smh,” tweeted Idris Lawal. “Always some lunatic goin crazy ova there. May Allah forgive that person and protect innocent lives.”