Police hunt suspect in US university campus shooting

WASHINGTON: Police were hunting yesterday the suspect in a shooting that left three people dead and two others wounded on a university campus in the US state of Virginia, authorities said.

The main campus of the University of Virginia (UVA) in Charlottesville was locked down while helicopters and police searched for a man considered to be ‘armed and dangerous’, the UVA Office of Emergency Management tweeted.

Christopher Darnell Jones Jr, a student at the university, was suspected to have carried out the shooting on campus, UVA president Jim Ryan said in a statement.

“This is a traumatic incident for everyone in our community, and we have cancelled classes for today,” Ryan said.

Counseling and psychological support would be made available to students and faculty, he said.

Police in the state of Idaho were investigating a separate incident Monday in which four students were found dead in a home near another university campus, believed to be ‘the victims of homicide’.

Officers responded to a call in the town of Moscow, near the campus of the University of Idaho, about an unconscious individual.

“Upon arrival, officers discovered four individuals who were deceased,” police said in a statement.

“It is with deep sadness that I share with you that the university was notified today of the death of four University of Idaho students living off-campus believed to be victims of homicide,” University of Idaho president Scott Green said in a statement.