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Two men, including a campus police officer, were shot and killed Thursday afternoon on the campus of Virginia Tech, the scene of a 2007 massacre in which 33 people were slain, the authorities said.

The police officer, Deriek W. Crouse, 39, of Christiansburg, Va., was shot at close range by a man who had walked up to him as the officer was making a traffic stop in a campus parking lot, the police said.

In a conference call with reporters on Thursday night, Gov. Bob McDonnell and state police officers said they had evidence indicating that the gunman was the same man who was later found dead of a gunshot wound in a parking lot about a quarter-mile away.

“We have recovered clothing items that would lead us to believe that he would be one and the same,” said Maj. Rick Jenkins, deputy director of the Virginia State Police’s bureau of investigation. But he added, “We are not in a situation to say that definitively at this point.”

Officer Crouse was killed around noon in a shooting that was captured on video by a camera mounted on the dashboard of his police car. Officials would not say whether the second man, whom they did not identify, had shot himself but they said they believed he had acted alone in killing Officer Crouse.

The shooting dredged up traumatic memories of April 16, 2007, when a student, Seung-Hui Cho, shot and killed 32 people before killing himself on the campus, five hours south of Washington in the western mountains of Virginia.

With that experience still vivid, an emergency notification went out on Thursday within minutes, leading to a universitywide lockdown of students and staff in campus buildings, and hundreds of police officers, some wearing body armor and carrying machine guns, hurrying to respond.

“Our hearts are broken again,” said Charles W. Steger, the president of the university.

Update: Police remain on scene

(Posted: 4:19 p.m.) Virginia State Police and Virginia Tech Police remain on the scene of an officer-involved shooting on the Virginia Tech campus. At this time there are two confirmed deaths. One is a Virginia Tech Police Officer. The second is an unknown male subject who was found deceased in a parking lot near the Duck Pond. A weapon has been recovered at the location of the second individual. Reports of any additional shots being fired or any additional victims are unfounded.

A police officer was shot and killed during a routine traffic stop in the coliseum parking lot of the Virginia Tech campus, officials said this afternoon.

After the shooting - around noon - the gunman ran toward another parking lot known as the Cage where police found a second person fatally shot, the Roanoke Times was reporting

A campus-wide alert told students and faculty to stay inside and lock doors. Authorities were seeking a suspect.

A law enforcement official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case, said initial reports indicated that the shooting occurred following a traffic stop.

The suspect was described as a white male wearing gray sweat pants, a gray hat with neon green brim, a maroon hoodie and backpack.

As sirens blared, heavily armed police officers were seen running through the area around the roundabout at the end of Washington Street, and officers searched cars around the Cage. At the Coliseum, what appeared to be a body was covered with a cloth in a taped-off area of the parking lot. Officers there told a dozen student-age onlookers to leave for their own safety.

By 2 p.m., students were scarce and police dogs were being used in the search for the gunman. Officials were reporting that the Virginia State Police had been called to take the lead in the investigation.

Tech students Rachel Dallman and Jake Desmarais were enjoying lunch when they heard about the shooting. They stood in the Cassell Coliseum lot 50 feet from a taped off area where a body was covered.

Desmarais was stunned, called the news “shocking,” while Dallman was upset that such an event took place on Reading Day, which would otherwise be a quiet, routine segway into the holidays.

“What’s going on, why? In broad daylight and on Reading Day?” she said.

All Montgomery County schools also were reportedly on lockdown shortly after 2 p.m.

A message left with the university wasn’t immediately returned. Campus police referred all questions to the university.

The shooting came the same day as Virginia Tech was appealing a $55,000 fine by the U.S. Education Department in connection with the university’s response to the 2007 rampage, when a student gunman killed 32 students and faculty and then shot himself.