Multiple people were shot late Friday night in Blacksburg, Virginia, a college town that was shattered by one of the worst shootings in U.S. history nearly 15 years ago.
One person was killed and another four people were injured during a shooting at a hookah lounge, authorities said.
The Blacksburg Police Department said officers responded to reports of shots fired at the Melody Hookah Lounge in downtown Blacksburg on Friday just before midnight.
Police did not identify the deceased person or any of the people who were injured in the shooting. Authorities said they were taken to local hospitals, but that their conditions are unknown.
No additional information was made available, including details on potential suspects or a motive.
Authorities were pursuing up to four suspects, according to Montgomery County Public Safety scanner traffic, following initial reports of an active shooter.
“Multiple law enforcement agencies are assisting in the area and following up on leads,” Blacksburg Police said in a statement early Saturday.
On Twitter, Virginia Tech urged students to “stay inside” and “call 911 for help.” The campus was on lockdown. There were shots reported outside the Newman Library on campus around 1:25 a.m., according to scanner traffic.
“Reports of shots fired in Blacksburg. Stay inside. Secure doors. Emergency personnel responding. Call 911 for help,” the university tweeted at 2:19 a.m.
The university then tweeted again at 3:18 a.m. ET that the “secure in place” order had been lifted.
The Melody Hookah Lounge, open until 2 a.m. Fridays, according to its website, is just blocks from the campus of Virginia Tech, where, in April 2007, an undergraduate student killed 32 people in the deadliest school shooting in U.S. history.
It stood as America’s worst mass shooting until the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, and, then, the 2017 Las Vegas shooting.
It’s the second high-profile shooting this week in Virginia. A former student on Tuesday allegedly shot and killed two campus officers at Bridgewater College, a small private school about 135 miles from Blacksburg.
Bridgewater College police officer John E. Painter, 55, and campus safety officer Vashon “JJ” A. Jefferson, 48, were killed after responding to reports of a suspicious man on campus.
Contributing: The Associated Press
