No Gunshots at Virginia Tech

Reports of gunfire on the campus of Virginia Tech have been dismissed after police conducted a thorough search of an area near Pritchard Hall.

 Earlier in the afternoon campus police received a call reporting sounds that like gunfire outside Pritchard Hall. The 1,000-bed dorm was evacuated and a search of each room on every floor was made.

 Police did find cartridges from nail guns but those were believed to have originated from a construction site nearby. Witnesses in the area told police they saw people exploding something, possibly firecrackers, near the dorm.

False alarm at Va. Tech -- "shots" might have been construction noise.

Virginia Tech spokeswoman says police are searching room by room; currently unknown if there were injuries.

Virginia Tech police are investigating reports of possible gunshots and have locked down a residential hall.

A university spokesman, Mark Owczarski (OH’-zahr-skee), says two people reported hearing gunfire Thursday afternoon, but it could have been sounds from a nearby construction site.

There are no reports of injuries.

Virginia Tech officials are searching every room of Pritchard Hall, a dorm on the Blacksburg campus that is home to 1,000 students. No one is being allowed in or out of the building, but the entire campus has not been locked down.

In 2007, 32 people were killed by a gunman on campus who later killed himself.