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Virginia Tech students on edge after threatening email message

Posted at 3:12 PM, Aug 29, 2016
and last updated 2016-08-29 23:22:48-04

BLACKSBURG, Va. -- As college campuses across the country resume classes, the Virginia Tech community is on edge Monday after several people at the university received a threatening email message.

The email message came from four separate Gmail accounts with the subject, "warning." The email read:

"I am here to inform that in the next couple of days I will break into the campus and will kill as many people as I can untill (sic) the police arrives," the note read according to the college newspaper.

"The safety of campus is a primary concern, and with his in mind, we remain vigilant in our investigation," the school said in a updated press release.

The school was never on lockdown, but the threat led to some professors to cancel their classes and others to lock their doors.

Virginia Tech student Jack Mustain says students were nervous.

"My roommate and I, when we got back we got in our cars and started picking up friends and taking them off campus to their houses and calling everyone we know to make sure they were ok," he said.

University officials say as many as four other colleges received similar threatening messages.

Chief Dave McCoy is president of the Virginia Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators. The organization helps train and educates campus police across the state.

McCoy said campus' take every threat seriously....and reach out of federal and state authorities for assistance.

"In this day in age we live in, everything has to be addressed,” he said. “We are fortunate enough to have the resources in law enforcement to address that in an expedient fashion."

Law enforcement is working with Google and other agencies to determine the legitimacy of the threat- in the meantime, school officials say they're keeping students, faculty and staff informed while encouraging the community to remain vigilant.

In April 2007 a gunman opened fire on the Blacksburg campus, killing 32 people before committing suicide.

Anyone with additional information can email threatassessment@vt.edu or call 540-382-4343.

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