they tell us they are in communication with blacksburg, virginia, police.ng us any more information at this point. but this all began shortly after 9:00 this morning, when three of these young campers, as we were describing, were on campus right now for one of the summer camp programs that exists at the university, reported seeing a white man, roughly 6 feet tall. they say he had light brown hair. outside what's called new residence hall east. this is also near dietrick hall, which is one of the dining halls on campus. that's a name that's likely unfamiliar to you, but it's significant because that's just steps away from the dorm where the shootings took place in 2007, where that gunman killed 32 people and then killed himself. federal officials, as our colleague pete williams is reporting, have not been able to confirm or to verify anybody actually has a gun on campus presently, but the description, again, is coming from three separate individuals. it lends some credibility to this report right now. he was said to be walking in the direction of the campus

joy, you have been put on standby there in blacksburg out of an abundance of caution, correct? >> well, we actually are not commenting on that, but what i can tell you is that we are aware of the situation and that we are in communication with the police department. because we're allowing the police department to handle this, we're not making much comment at this time, but i can tell you that we are aware of the situation. >> are you the closest facility, hospital, medical facility to the campus? >> yes, we would be the closest facility near the campus. >> and when were you put on alert or when were you notified? i'm sorry, when were these avenues of communication opened up between police and your facility? >> well, what i can tell you is when the alert went out, or when they started telling people about what was going on, that we were made aware of the situation. i can't go into specific details about it, but i want to just let the public know that we are aware of it and that, you know, we're in communication with the police department. >> all right. joy sutton with the lewis

bill: here's the timeline, it is now, 10:18, east coast time in blacksburg.ginia tech alert went out claiming a person was spotted with this gun, outside the dining hall and people on campus were asked to stay inside and secure your doors and police now are going through the area near dittrich hall to figure out what is up. 9:59, 12 minutes later, one of our affiliates, wflf in blacksburg confirmed, the alarm system had been activated. and joe matthews, former supervisor, homicide division in miami, florida, good morning to you. >> good morning. bill: frankly, we do not know what is happening on the campus as we get the news here we'll try and reach out to people who may be eye witnesses and also, could be working with the campus police. but, it is true virginia tech set the stage for the alert systems now widespread across universities in america. how does that system work when a threat like that happens. >> the positive thing is it is working now and the students are aware of a possible crisis, law enforcement is aware of it and they'll be informed what to

. >>> now to that breaking news out of the virginia tech campus in blacksburg, virginia, where the campus remains in lockdown after three high school students attending a summer camp told police they saw a man with a gun. police have just released this composite sketch of the alleged gunman posted on the virginia tech website. justice correspondent pete williams is following all of this. pete, understandable that even without knowing or confirming anything, at virginia tech of all places, they would respond quickly and go into lockdown mode, the alert went off. what do we know? >> reporter: right. well, andrea, the initial call came just after 9:00 this morning, campus police went to a building where some high school students, three 14-year-olds attending a summer camp for high schoolers, reported that they saw what they thought was a gun being carried by a man. they gave a very vivid description of the man, said he was wearing vertically striped blue and white shirt with shorts and brown sandals, clean-shaven, glasses. this is the description they gave and based on that, the police gener

the thought blacksburg on most of the words on the prime minister david cameron as the outlines tough policing measures to prevent further violence always from parliament coming up shortly. israel is steaming ahead with building settlements in the occupied territories just weeks before palestinian authorities are expected to all the united nations to recognise their states. as experts predict the further decline of the us economy average americans fears the society will share a similar fate forcing some to say radical measures to survive the future for hours . and as an uneasy calm settles in northern cos of a raft a recent ethnic clashes they call pose so say they live in a constant claim it's been seen the day should on their own land it's. very warm welcome to you this is our sea live from moscow the british prime minister has vile that rises will pay for what they've done as he addressed parliament in the wake of clashes that in the country what started as a peaceful protest against a police shooting a man in north london quickly grew into scenes of bedlam. bennetts joins us now w

we're also expecting a news conference from there, from the campus in blacksburg, virginia, right around 3:15 eastern time so just about five minutes from now. police had urged everyone to stay indoors for the majority of the day after a group of kids at a camp on campus reported seeing a man with what might have been a gun. take a look at this picture. this is a composite sketch that the university has recently released based upon the kids' description, report of a man possibly, possibly carrying a gun immediately put the campus on edge. we all remember, i was there covering it back in april of 2007, a gunman killed 32 people on the virginia tech campus before turning the gun on himself. the tragedy prompted an overhaul of the virginia tech campus alert system. again, quick reminder. just about five minutes from now. we're expecting a live news conference from virginia tech. of course, we'll bring that to you live. also, we'll get right back to this story. in his very first news conference as secretary of defense, leon panetta just warned the room that defense cuts that would kick in un

>>shepard: that sounds as if there is no new development in blacksburg at virginia tech, no shots fired real concern at the moment. police seem calm. the campus seems fine. continuing coverage as warranted. breaking news now on fox news channel we got word from washington that harry reid has announced there is now a deal to re-open the federal aviation administration. congress went away for summer vacation without funding the f.a.a. it is a lot of complicated reasons but once again it is politics. one side, the republicans, were concerned about unions. the other side concerned about benefits. and small airports that are used in small areas with few passengers and the drain from the taxes on that. they went home for vacation without funding the f.a.a. so the people who collect the taxes were gone and they could not collect the taxes so we are down millions a day and we could have lost $1 billion over august recess so they figured out a way and got it reopened and we are watching the markets right now. 36 minutes before the closing bell of the corner of wall and broad and the sell off is

actually in 1897 near a county in virginia not far from blacksburg, virginia where the last event ofze occurred. in fact, the largest we really recorded or monitored, in recorded history in this part of the country. and it's a moderate, modest to moderate sized earthquake but one that could have minimal damage associated with it. >> and what do we know about any potential aftershocks that occurred? are you able to tell us anything than? >> yes. we've had two we've recorded so far. magnitude 2.2 and magnitude 2.8 but would anticipate with the next several weeks we could have numerous aftershocks up to one ma in a tude level below the main shock. rule of thumb. up to the middle of nag ma tude 4, 4.5, something like that in that neighborhood, would not be unexpected. >> would you surprised, though, that the impact of this earthquake was commonwealth as far afield as toronto in canada and atlanta? >> no, not really. because we're well aware in at least the seismological community earthquakes in the eastern part of the country tend to carry their seismic energy much more efficiently and b

right now police from virginia tech complex blacksburg and virginia state police are searching for thepects. the governor of the state has also been notified and he is making sure that all resources are available to find the gun and that was seen on the campus of a virginia tech. we will fall of this breaking news story right here on the kron 4 morning news. >> the dow jones industrial average was off 359 points, it is now off 310. losses for the year on the dow, nasdaq and s and p at these current levels. let's get some insight into what is happening, steve massocca with wedbush securities is joining us. hello, steve. >> hello. if we spoke to about two hours ago. her the dow's offer over three of the points. any insight? >> previous sellouts were driven by poor economic data. now i think this is being driven by a couple of things. first of all, concerns about debt levels in >> i am watching insurance policies that investors can take out on government debt. i'm looking in places like hall italy, greece, spain and belgium. they are all showing big increases in the cost of that couple th

they have law enforcement officers from virginia tech, blacksburg, montgomery county, all patrolling> just to bring everybody up to date here, you got this aletter that possibly there was somebody with a handgun on campus and you're the first to give us these details now, three kids at camp allegedly saw this man walking around with a gun covered, by you said, some type of cloth. >> some kind of covering. cloth or some kind of covering. >> what camp are these kids attending? and is it right there near the dining hall? >> we have many, many camps in the summer, sports camps, academic camps, so i'm really not sure which camp they were attending, but we have maybe up to 100 different camps during the summer. so i'm not real sure. it doesn't say. but we have had a lot of kids from all over who come to these various specialized camps. >> got it. and the description of this alleged gunman, can you give us anything more -- >> he was a white male, six feet tall, light brown hair and he had blue and white striped shirt, the stripes were vertical, gray shorts and brown sandals. the subject had

students at a day camp, some children attending a day camp on the campus of this university in blacksburg, virginia. they said they saw a man who was holding something like a gun, it was covered up they continue be sure. they described him as 6 feet tall, light brown hair -- judge i'm sorry to interrupt you again. it looks like weave both parties present, let's listen. >> at approximately 9:ot this mornin9:09 this morning we received a call. three juveniles reported they saw a man with a handgun. we responded, we did not find anyone in the area. the juveniles were interviewed, officers determined that their information was credible, and so at that point we decided to issue the alert that most of you have received. since that time officers have been searching the campus. we have assistance from local law enforcement helping us do that. we have not had any further reported sightings. we have not had any reports of anyone suspicious, at least with this person's description or any more information regarding this person. the alert is still in effect, and officers are still continuing to contro