A San Jose City College building was evacuated and parts of the campus were briefly locked down today as a precaution after a student began making general death threats during a class.

Booked into Santa Clara County jail on suspicion of making terrorist threats was 38-year-old student Raphael Mata of San Jose.

Campus police chief Larry Lutzow said the other students and the teacher of the computer course left Mata alone in the room inside the tech building at Bascom and Moorpark avenues during the outburst.

They spread the word to other classrooms in the building, which began to evacuate as well, and to the rest of the campus. The campus child development center was also locked down as a precaution, as were some other classrooms in other buildings.

Campus police responded to the situation at 10:20 a.m., but the man was already gone by the time they arrived at the classroom. People who saw the man leave the classroom pointed him out to officers. Police took him into custody at gunpoint without resistance about 100 yards from the tech building.

Classes were disrupted for about 20 minutes, Lutzow said.

Lutzow said the student didn't make any references to weapons during his tirade, and police didn't find any weapons when they searched him. ``The teacher and students took it seriously, and that was good enough for us,'' Lutzow said.

Mata was not held under protective custody because he didn't appear to be a threat to himself or others when he was arrested, Lutzow said. ``He was having a bad day.''

The chief said he wasn't sure of the exact words Mata used to threaten those in the classroom. But student witnesses told the police he had said something about they would all die if they didn't leave the classroom, Lutzow said.

The incident remains under investigation.