Morning of Terror at Va. Tech Campus

Virginia Tech student Gerald Goad, 21, leaves his Ambler-Johnston Hall dorm at the school in Blacksburg, Va., Monday, April 16, 2007. A gunman opened fire in a Virginia Tech dorm and then, two hours later, shot up a classroom building across campus Monday, killing 32 people in the deadliest shooting rampage in U.S. history. The gunman committed suicide, bringing the death toll to 33. (AP Photo/Allen Breed) (Allen Breed - AP)

"I heard the gunshots and just sprinted," she says, adding that she took cover in another school building. "It was probably one of the scariest things in my life."

At 9:55 a.m, the school said, it sent out a second e-mail.

"Please stay put," it warned. "A gunman is loose on campus. Stay in buildings until further notice. Stay away from all windows."

The university also began telephoning resident advisers in the dorms to notify them and sent people to knock on doors to get the word out, Virginia Tech President Charles Steger said at a news conference.

Soon after, horrifying sounds and images flooded TV screens and Internet sites across America. SWAT teams in flak jackets swarmed the campus. Students helped faculty members carry out the wounded, as ambulances streamed to the site.

CNN aired a jerky video provided by a student's cell phone that showed what seemed to be police outside Norris Hall accompanied by a chilling soundtrack _ the crackle of gunshots.

What had happened inside? Reports were fragmentary.

One student told The Washington Post that the gunman, said to be about 19 years old, burst into the room and fired about 30 shots in just a minute a half _ first blasting a professor in the head, then shooting the students.

Planet Blacksburg _ a local, student-run Web site _ quoted Ruiqi Zhang, identified as a computer engineering student who said he was on the second floor of Norris.

"A student rushed in and told everybody to get down," Zhang said. "We put a table against the door and when the gunman tried to shoulder his way in and when he saw that he couldn't, he put two shots through the door. It was the scariest moment of my life."

The Web site also quoted Gene Cole, a building worker, as saying the shooter wore a hat and carried an automatic weapon. "He loaded his gun at me," Cole said. "I ran down the steps to get out of there."

It was eerily reminiscent of the shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado eight years ago this very week. And something else recalled some of the most shocking images of Sept. 11, 2001: Students jumping from windows to escape.