By: E&P Staff It's not yet known if there is any connection, but the media carried reports at the beginning of this month, and again last Friday, of bomb threats on the campus of Virginia Tech where at least 29 students were shot and killed earlier today.
Police are now investigating a link, in any case.
The most recent reports came last Friday, when the school closed Torgersen, Durham, and Whittemore Halls because of a bomb threat and canceled classes. A handwritten note was found that day the university said there have been a connection between the bomb threats.
Because the three buildings needed to be swept for bombs, they were closed for the whole weekend. Virginia Tech offered a $5,000 reward for information about the threats.
On April 3, The Roanoke Times reported: "A written bomb threat led Virginia Tech to evacuate a 100,000-square-foot building, cancel the classes within it, and close a major gateway to the campus for much of Monday.
"Torgersen Hall will remain closed and under observation by authorities, but 'the tape has come down [and] the roads are open again,' university spokesman Larry Hincker said shortly before 6 p.m.
"Tech's police department continues to investigate, he said. The building is expected to reopen at 7 a.m. today.
"The threat was reported about 1:20 p.m. and the decision to evacuate came a little less than half an hour later, Hincker said. The Alumni Mall, a major gateway to Tech, was closed as the building was searched by bomb-sniffing dogs from Dublin, Roanoke and state police.
"Hincker, who has been at Tech two decades, said the only comparable bomb threat he can remember was in October 2001, when a fake device was found in Newman Library."
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