Two people have been killed and four others wounded – two with life-threatening injuries – in a shooting at the University of North Carolina in the United States.
UNC Charlotte issued a campus lockdown late on Tuesday afternoon, saying shots had been fired. Later in the evening, the campus was declared secure after a suspect was taken into custody.
The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department said in a statement on Twitter that one person was in custody and no one else is believed to be involved.
Television station WBTV in Charlotte reported that gunfire erupted about 5:45pm local time (21:45 GMT) near the university’s Kennedy Hall administrative building.
The Mecklenburg EMS, an independent agency that handles emergency services for the county, confirmed that two people were dead on the scene and that four others were taken to a nearby hospital, two of them with life-threatening injuries.
BREAKING: Video shows police responding to active shooter at UNCC Charlotte – 6 shot, one in custody. pic.twitter.com/fALK7Apk6F
— Breaking News Global (@BreakingNAlerts) April 30, 2019
Aerial shots from local television news outlets showed police officers running towards a building, while another view showed students running on a campus pavement.
The police later said that the campus had been secured and that officers were going through buildings to let people who had sheltered in place know that it was safe.
Sam Rice, a senior on UNC Charlotte’s tennis team, told Spectrum News that he was in the library studying for a final exam when he heard people yelling “shooter, shooter”.
He said he heard police yelling for people to stay down and stay on the floor.
He was “waiting for someone to tell us everything was going to be OK”.
When people were told to leave, he ran out in his socks, running over glass on the floor.
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| Students and faculty file out of buildings with their hands up during a lockdown after a shooting on the campus of University of North Carolina. [Logan Cyrus/AFP] |
“We are in shock to learn of an active shooter situation on the campus of UNC Charlotte. My thoughts are with the families of those who lost their lives, those injured, the entire UNCC community and the courageous first responders who sprang into action to help others,” Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles said on Twitter.
