A Police composite of the person who was suspected of carrying a gun earlier today on the campus of Virginia Tech
A Police composite of the person who was suspected of carrying a gun earlier today on the campus of Virginia Tech, formally known as Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University is seen on their website, August 4, 2011. Police described the suspect as being 6 feet (1.83 meters) tall with light brown hair and wearing a blue and white striped shirt, gray shorts and brown sandals. Authorities shut down the Virginia Tech campus for hours on Thursday after a report of a gunman at the university where 32 people were killed in a mass shooting in 2007. REUTERS

Reminding the nation of a nightmare not so long ago, a gunman was reportedly spotted near Virginia Tech University, the very stage of the worst campus shooting of U.S. history.

The gunman was reported near Dietrick Hall, a dining facility steps away from the dorm where the first shooting took place in the 2007 shooting spree, which left 33 dead.

Thursday morning around 9 a.m., three children attending a summer camp at Virginia Tech reported seeing a man with a handgun "covered by a cloth or covering of some sort," the university said in a statement. The possible gunman was described as a white man, 6-feet tall, light brown hair, wearing a striped blue shirt, gray shorts, and brown sandals.

Around 1:00 p.m., police released a composite sketch of the possible gunman.

Authorities have lifted the lockdown on Virginia Tech campus after police offers conducted an extensive search for a suspected gunman on Thursday.

"The campus alert is lifted. There will continue to be a large police presence on campus today," the university said in a notice posted at 2:41 p.m. "Police have not received nor discovered additional information about a person possibly carrying a weapon beyond that reported this morning."

Police will be continue to be on campus.

In 2007, Seung-Hui Cho, a 23-year-old Korean-American Virginia Tech student who was majoring in English, shot dead 32 students and faculty members and wounded 25 others and then committed suicide by shooting himself.

While Cho studied in Virginia Tech, he had alarmed professors with his writings and was ordered to see a university psychologist.

The brutal and tragic case shocked the nation and alerted schools to reevaluate and tighten security on campuses.