The first that most students at Virginia Tech heard of the shootings was a round-robin e-mail entitled: “Please stay put.” It said simply: “A gunman is loose on campus. Stay in buildings until further notice. Stay away from all windows.”

Stuck where they were, the students started following developments over the internet and sharing what information they could in blogs, forums and instant messaging services.

One post published what “Sugad” claimed was an Instant Messenger conversation he was having with his brother, Trey Perkins, who had just come out of a German class. The conversation described how Trey had seen the killer come into his classroom, open fire and then leave, at which point he and another student barricaded the door. The post then described how the gunman tried to get back in: “He tried to come back in and was shooting through the door.”

Erin Sheehan was one of four people able to walk out of the German class in Room 207 of Norris Hall. “It’s a small class, about 25 people, and I would say no more than two people didn’t show up,” she said. “And of those of us that were in there today, only four of us walked out of that room, but two of us had been injured during the shooting.

“It seemed so strange because he peeked in twice, earlier in the lesson, like he was looking for someone, somebody, before he started shooting. But then we all heard something like drilling in the walls, and someone thought they sounded like bullets. That’s when we blockaded the door to stop anyone from coming in.

“He was just a normal-looking kid, Asian, but he had on a Boy Scout-type outfit. He wore a tan button-up vest and this black vest, maybe it was for ammo or something.

“I saw bullets hit people’s bodies. There was blood everywhere. People in the class were passed out. My professor, Herr Bishop — I’m not sure if he’s alive.”

Trey Perkins told MSNBC news: “I was in my German class and I remember looking at my phone and it was 9.40 and we started to hear loud pops. But none of us really thought it could have been gunshots because it wasn’t really loud like that. And, er, then a guy comes into the room. He shot our teacher and then we all got on the ground real quick and he started just shooting around at different people. Then he finally left the room and myself and two other students, one of whom was Derek O’Dell who had called in earlier . . . went up to the door and put our feet against it to hold it shut in case he started to come back again.

“He then started to shoot through the door, maybe four, five, six shots. Fortunately none of those shots hit anyone and he finally stopped trying to get into the room.”

A blogger calling himself Saddamit claimed to have discovered that his own friends were involved. “This happened in the building right next to the one I was in,” he wrote. “One of my friend’s brothers was shot. He’s at the hospital in OK condition (I think he was hit in the arm). One of my other friends was right down the hall from the second shooting. His class heard the gunshots and were able to barricade their door. The gunman actually tried to force his way in but wasn’t able to. My friend said the guy must have unloaded at least 100 rounds.”

A blogger called Hink wrote: “I was in the building across from where they thought the shooter was on campus. The police told us to get away from the window. Before that, we saw a professor come out with a bloody arm and apparently they rushed him away in an ambulance.”

At the friends’ network Facebook, popular with American students, dozens of networks had been set up within hours, paying tribute to those killed. On one site, Prayer Group for those Harmed/Killed at VT, Christopher Smith, wrote: “All those who have been killed and my friend that broke his leg are deeply in my prayers.”

Keeping the killer at bay: the exchange

Sugad (1:08:03pm) so he came into your class?

Trey (1:08:08pm) yeah

Trey (1:08:17pm) I didnt think there was any way id live

Trey (1:08:52pm) he finally left, me and the one other guy that wasn't shot ran to the door and held it shut

Trey (1:09:04pm) and he tried to come back in and was shooting through the door

Sugad (1:09:27pm) holy shit

Sugad (1:09:48pm) what kind of gun was it

Trey (1:09:55pm) pistol

Sugad (1:09:52pm) and did he line people up

Trey (1:10:08pm) no just shooting at people on the ground

Sugad (1:11:34pm) do you think it was random

Trey (1:12:57pm) i dont know

Sugad (1:14:03pm) so what did you do then

Trey (1:14:21pm) i just started helping people that were bleeding

Sugad (1:14:39pm) my god

After a pause for two minutes, the conversation restarted

Sugad (1:17:17pm) and then what

Sugad (1:17:25pm) sorry if you dont want to talk about it

Sugad (1:17:33pm) everyone wants to know what happened

Trey (1:18:15pm) its fine

Sugad (1:18:40pm) so did the cops arrive quickly or did you call them

Trey (1:19:08pm) yeah

Trey (1:19:38pm) we called

Times Recommends

• 'New York has lost its edge'
• Copenhagen will fail – and quite right too
• More than 17,000 new underwater species found