An Australian student at the US college where a gunman killed 32 people has told of seeing students running out of campus buildings with their hands up during the deadly rampage.
Victorian Eleanor Brentnall, 19, is in her freshman year at Virginia Tech on a basketball scholarship.
Her dorm is just metres away from where the first person was shot on Monday by a 23-year-old South Korean man identified as Cho Seung-Hui, a US resident and Virginia Tech student.
Cho then turned the gun on himself after the spree, the worst shooting rampage in US history.
Eleanor said she only found out about the shooting after police cars started showing up on campus and she asked another student, who told her that someone had been shot and it was thought the gunman was still loose on campus.
"There were so many police there, they were everywhere, it was crazy," she told AAP from her dorm on campus on Monday night.
"I was with one of my friends. We walked across the drill field to get away from it all.
"As I was standing on the other side I saw all these people running out with their hands up and screaming and the police were yelling and that's when I didn't hang around.
"I was going back into the dorm when a policeman came out of AJ (West Ambler Johnstone Hall) and started yelling at me and my friend to run and get into the building.
"I did that and turned on the news and that's when I found out the full extent of what had happened."
Eleanor said some memorial services had already been held on campus for the victims.
"They have just started releasing names of people who died," she said.
"There have been memorials held around campus and we are having a big one today.
"I think people are still in shock and can't believe it's happened here."
Eleanor said she had no thoughts of returning to Australia.
"It's like a little country town, nothing much happens and there's not a big crime rate or that kind of thing," she said.
"It's usually really peaceful.
"I'll stay here because I really don't feel like it's a dangerous place.
"It's just unfortunate it (the shooting) happened here."
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