LOS ANGELES - A gunman killed three people and wounded at least five others on the Michigan State University (MSU) campus in East Lansing, Michigan, on Monday night, sending students fleeing while he evaded swarms of law enforcement officers before apparently taking his own life off campus.

The 43-year-old gunman, whose name was not immediately released, was reported dead just after midnight (1pm Singapore time) on Tuesday, about four hours after the first 911 calls were made of shots fired. Initially described as a short male wearing a mask, he had last been seen alive fleeing the building housing the MSU student union on foot.

Some of the five people who were wounded had life-threatening injuries, according to Mr Chris Rozman, the university police department’s interim deputy police chief.

None of the names of the victims were released.

“We are relieved to no longer have an active threat on campus, while we realise there is so much healing that will need to take place,” Mr Rozman said.

He said it was unclear what the shooter’s connection was to the university or what the motive had been for the attack.

Shots were reported on campus after 8pm, prompting the university’s police department to send an alert urging people on campus to “secure in place immediately”.

Hundreds of law enforcement officers sped through the unusually empty streets near campus as students barricaded themselves in dorm rooms.

Mr Rozman said shots were fired inside Berkey Hall, home to the school’s college of arts and sciences.

He said a second shooting, “immediately following the first incident”, took place at the MSU student union.

Mr Carson Coleman, 20, a university sophomore studying criminal justice, said he was at work as a cook at a restaurant on the edge of campus when he and others received a blast of e-mails warning of an active shooter.

“My kitchen manager, she was trying to calm us down,” he said, “but at the same time you could tell she was really freaking out.”

Mr Julian Alonso, a freshman, left his dorm to buy a snack at a nearby 7-Eleven. As he turned back towards his dorm, he saw at least 10 police vehicles.

“I covered the door with my roommate’s bed and I turned off the lights,” Mr Alonso said. “I’m keeping myself hidden in the closet.”

Albert Street near campus, usually busy with bar patrons, was all but silent except for the sounds of sirens and a helicopter in the distance.

Hours after the first alert of shots fired, several campus buildings were cleared and secured, as officers swept the campus in search of the single suspect.

Students, faculty and residents in surrounding off-campus neighbourhoods of East Lansing, about 140km north-west of Detroit, were also urged by the authorities to “shelter in place” while the manhunt continued.

MSU is a major public institution of higher education whose flagship East Lansing campus accounts for 50,000 graduate and undergraduate students.

University police said on Monday night that all classes and campus activities would be cancelled for the next 48 hours.

Monday night’s violence came roughly 14 months after a deadly mass shooting on Nov 30, 2021, at Oxford High School in Oakland County, Michigan, about 130km east of East Lansing, in which a 15-year-old student opened fire with a semi-automatic pistol.

Four classmates were killed and six other students and a teacher were wounded in that attack, the deadliest US school shooting that year.

The authorities said the teenage suspect, who has pleaded not guilty to murder charges, used a gun his parents bought him as a Christmas present despite signs that he was emotionally disturbed. Both parents were charged with involuntary manslaughter in the case.

Governor Gretchen Whitmer said on Twitter that she was being briefed on the East Lansing shooting. NYTIMES, REUTERS