US university attacker dead after shooting at least three

At least three people were hospitalized after a shooting at a US university on Wednesday, police said, with the suspect dead.

The condition of the three victims was not immediately clear after the incident at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, but it was the latest in a country where gun violence is a part of the fabric of daily life.

"No more threat to the community," Sheriff Kevin McMahill of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said on social media.

"The suspect is deceased. Right now, we know there are 3 victims, but unknown extent of the injuries. That number could change."

Police said they had responded to calls around midday (2000 GMT), and indicated that officers had engaged a suspect on the campus, where gunshots rang out in at least two locations.

Television footage showed police military-style vehicles moving near containment lines, as well as dozens of young people being escorted through them.

One woman told local broadcaster KVVU that she had heard a series of loud noises and fled into a building on the campus, from which she was later evacuated by police.

"I was just having breakfast and then I heard three, like, loud booms," she told the station.

"Then two more, and then police showed up there and ran inside... but then after two minutes boom, boom, boom, more shots. So I ran into a basement, and then we were in the basement for 20 minutes."

Two hours after the shooting erupted, the university, which sits just a short distance from the heavily touristed Las Vegas Strip, continued to urge people to shelter in place, saying that police were working to clear each building in turn.

Brett Forrest, a reporter from the local KSNV told CNN he had been on the campus for an assignment, and was continuing to shelter in place with dozens of students and faculty as they awaited the all-clear from police.

"We are told that they're coming building by building slowly letting out each building making sure no additional victims or anyone else inside so they might take a while," he said.

Universities in the area were shuttered for the rest of the day, and flights into the nearby international airport were halted, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

Las Vegas is a gambling and entertainment hub that attracts millions of visitors every year, many of whom come to see large, high-profile events.

Last month the city played host to its inaugural Formula One Grand Prix, and in February it will be the scene of the Super Bowl, the showcase final of the professional American football season.

The city was also the scene of one of America's deadliest ever mass shootings when a gunman opened fire on a crowded music festival in 2017, killing 60 people

Mass shootings are alarmingly common in the United States, a country where there are more guns than people and where attempts to clamp down on their spread are always met with stiff resistance.

The country has recorded over 600 mass shootings this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nongovernmental organization that defines a mass shooting as four or more people wounded or killed.

The Washington Post, which keeps its own tally of mass shootings, said that as of Monday there had been 38 such incidents in which at least four people had been killed.

Efforts to tighten gun controls have for years run up against opposition from Republicans, staunch defenders of what they interpret as an unfettered constitutional right to weaponry.

The political paralysis endures despite widespread outrage over recurrent shootings.

(Source: AFP)

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