The campus alert at Virginia Polytechnic Institute remained lifted Friday, a day after reports of an armed man roaming the campus triggered an all-day manhunt.

The alarm was raised on Thursday after three juveniles attending a camp at the university reported sighting a white male with a weapon which he had apparently covered with a cloth. The suspect was reported to be six feet tall, with light brown hair and no facial hair or glasses. He was first sighted outside the New Residence Hall East.

The university experienced one of the worst shooting incidents in recent U.S. history on April 16, 2007, when gunman Seng Hui Cho shot dead 32 people.

On its Web site the university immediately sounded the alarm, stating: "Person with gun reported near Dietrick. Stay Inside. Secure doors. Emergency personnel responding. Call 911 for help."

Law enforcement officers from VTPD, Blacksburg PD, Christiansburg PD, Virginia State Police, and the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office have been patrolling the campus but haven't yet found the suspected gunman.

However the university lifted the campus alert at 2:41 p.m., stating: "Police have not received nor discovered additional information about a person possibly carrying a weapon beyond that reported this morning."

The scare comes just weeks after Norway experienced one of the worst shootings in its history, when right-wing zealot Andres Behring Breivik, dressed as a policeman, went on a 90-minute shooting rampage at a Labor Party youth summer camp in Utoeya, killing 77 people.

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