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Click the play button to hear Tuesday's second press conference on the Ferrum College lockdown.

Video by Seth Gitner | The Roanoke Times

Franklin County Sheriff Ewell Hunt said the entire campus has been secured. Some 300 law enforcement personnel from about 20 local, state and federal agencies are on campus, he said.

The lockdown at the college and adjacent Ferrum Elementary School continues, but parents of elementary school students will be able to pick up their children starting at 3 p.m., Hunt said.

The lockdown was a main topic of conversation at the Seventy-Seven Restaurant in Ferrum at lunchtime.

Bill Pullen, who lives in Ferrum and used to be a men’s basketball coach at the college, was eating lunch at the restaurant and keeping an eye on what was happening just down the road.

He was driving from Ferrum to Rocky Mount this morning when he saw about 26 law enforcement vehicles heading down the road. “So I knew it hadn’t been resolved,” he said. “That did get me concerned, and I’m not easily excitable.”

He owns an insurance company, but he said he plans to stick around Ferrum today instead of working. “After that went down at Virginia Tech, you have to be prepared for anything,” he said. “Until they have him in custody, anything can happen.”

Tyler Hunt, a 19-year-old Ferrum College sophomore from Penhook who was just finishing lunch at Seventy-Seven, said he was driving onto campus around 7:50 a.m. and stopped in a parking lot because he thought his brakes were squealing. Then he realized he was hearing the college’s emergency siren.

He stayed in the parking lot, talking to people who had gathered there. At 7:54 a.m., he got a text message alert from the school. He headed to the nearby Dairy Queen, where he met up with other students and watched things develop.

“At least for a good two hours, SWAT team after SWAT team came through, and lots of media,” Hunt said. “It was just good to see such a response from authorities. … It just shows that they took every safety procedure they could.”

Hunt plans to keep in touch with friends and listen to the news for the rest of the day.

He compared attending Ferrum to coming to a family gathering – the school has a real sense of community, he said. “It’s like you live at home, being at Ferrum,” he said.

“It makes you realize that anything can happen these days.”

Click the play button to hear a full recording of Ferrum College's 11 a.m. press conference with Franklin County Sheriff Ewell Hunt and Ferrum College President Jennifer Braaten.

Ferrum College officials now say that all students are safe at the school after this morning's incident, and that no shots were fired.

The campus lockdown remains in effect while the investigation continues.

Another press conference about this morning's gun incident and lockdown at Ferrum College is scheduled for 2 p.m.

Authorities focused their attention on Bassett Hall (left) this morning after a man was seen entering the building with a handgun. Some students have been sent to the campus gymnasium (right) as authorities continue to secure campus buildings.

See a closer view of Bassett Hall

Image courtesy of Franklin County GIS

Aerial view of the Ferrum College campus. Authorities focused their attention on Bassett Hall this morning, and sent some students to the campus gymnasium. Bassett (left) is home to about 420 students and is divided into single-sex suites. The residence hall is divided into two wings, east and west.

See an aerial view of the Ferrum College campus

Image courtesy of Franklin County GIS

Khoseraw Habibi, 26, a sophomore at Ferrum College, described the campus as being swarmed by "hundreds" of emergency vehicles, including sheriff's department cars, ambulances and hazardous materials trucks.

He said the campus appeared to be on lockdown, with police blocking at least one entrance and Bassett Hall, the site of the incident, having been evacuated.

"I think everyone is feeling nervous," said Habibi, an international student from Afghanistan.

Speaking of his native country, Habibi, a political science major and journalism minor, said, "This thing is not something new to me but new in America."