At least 33 people were shot and killed this morning at Virginia Tech in the worst rampage of its kind in American history.

President George Bush, earlier this afternoon, said, "Our nation is shocked and saddened by the news of the shootings at Virginia Tech today."

Bush said the impact is "felt in every American classroom and every American community."

"We ask a loving God to comfort those suffering today," he said.

Tech's president, Charles Steger, called the shootings a "tragedy of monumental proportions."

"The university is shocked and indeed horrified," he said.

There were others wounded, and the exact count is not known at this point. Hospitals in the area reported more than a dozen victims in varying conditions and levels of treatment.

Police said at one point today that they believe one gunman was responsible for the carnage, but said later the two shooting incidents had not been officially related as of yet. Tonight, Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum said there's still a "person of interest" in the case. That potential suspect is a male, not a student, and police were interviewing him off campus this morning after the first shooting, which involved the killing of a male and female inside West Ambler Johnston Hall, a dormitory.

The gunman, not yet identified, later took his own life inside Norris Hall, where most of the victims were shot, said Tech Police Chief Wendell Flinchum. The gunman is included in the death toll of 33.

Word of the shootings spread across the country and then internationally in hours, and it was prominently played on most national news Web sites and broadcasts. CNN characterized it as “the worst school shooting incident in U.S. history.”

The shootings, which started shortly after 7:30 a.m., occurred in two places, Norris and West Ambler Johnston halls.

Authorities are in the process of notifying next-of-kin of the victims, and none of their names are expected to be released until tomorrow.

Some of the victims are students, Flinchum said.

The campus and the town of Blacksburg went into shutdown mode today as police and emergency crews scrambled to the scene. The Tech campus was closed today, classes are canceled for tomorrow, and employees and students were evacuated this afternoon.

It was a normal start to the day for Virginia Tech students. But then chaos broke out. Students reported hearing as many as 30 gunshots at a time as they first came to grips with what was happening, and then evacuated campus buildings.

Steve Hanson was working in a lab in Norris Hall around 10:15 when he said he heard what he thought was banging from a construction site. But moments later Hanson realized something was wrong. As he left Norris he said he saw one person who was shot in the arm.

More than two dozen students were stranded on the fourth floor of Newman Library.

Senior Kimberly McKay, a double major in political science and history, had been there for more than an hour, keeping up with friends and peers via instant messaging and cellphones.

“It’s a little nerve-wracking,” she said. “We’re just waiting to hear from the university.”

Virginia Tech Math instructor and Blacksburg Vice Mayor Susan Anderson hunkered down in her McBryde Hall office with two students, waiting for Tech e-mail updates. She was distraught when she heard reports that some victims were dead.

At noon the campus was secure and students and employees were ordered to evacuate and go home immediately.

Tech and police officials were questioned at a news conference this afternoon about the way the situation was handled, especially the choice not to lock-down the entire campus following the first shooting. Steger and Flinchum defended the actions that were taken.

Today’s shootings are the second gun-related crime in the past year to shut down the university, and it has ignited more discussion about the university’s concealed weapons policy.

Campus was evacuated on the first day of the fall semester last year when William Morva escaped police custody, allegedly killing a security guard and shooting to death a Montgomery County Sheriff’s deputy on the Huckleberry Trail near campus.

A Roanoke Times message board exploded Monday morning with angry rhetoric between gun rights advocates and opponents. One poster argued that the shootings and other university violence was reason enough for Virginia Tech to reverse its policy banning concealed weapons permit holders from carrying guns on campus. The Times later took the message board down.

Tech Appalachian Studies professor Emily Satterwhite spend the morning at her home adjacent to campus trying to contact some of the students in her classes to make sure they were safe. She said she's never felt afraid on campus, even after the Morva shootings, but this morning has caused concern.

"There's been some controversy in the past year about whether it is reasonable to deny concealed weapons on campus. I don’t know what kind of weapon this was … but I certainly think we’ve had a lot of evidence that the availability of weapons has been dangerous," Satterwhite said.

Monday's shooting came just months after William Morva of Blacksburg was arrested on the Tech campus and charged with the killing of a sheriff's deputy near the school.

Rebecca Slutzky, a senior from Charlottesville, lives off campus at Rutherford Townhomes. She was concerned for the safety of her friends in nearby campus buildings.

“I’m a little freaked out,” she said. “I really don’t know what’s happened to Blacksburg ... this really is a safe area.”

Slutzky is also concerned about the negative publicity that shootings earlier this year and bomb threats are giving the university.

Steger announced the university will hold a campus-wide event at Cassell Coliseum tomorrow at 2 p.m. to begin to deal with the tragedy.

There a number of vigils planned for tonight and statements about the tragedy were released by elected officials from state senators to President Bush.