Woman held after three people die in US university shooting

A WOMAN has been arrested after three people were killed and three injured in a shooting incident on a US university campus.

The suspect is alleged to have opened fire during a biology faculty meeting at the University of Alabama's Huntsville campus yesterday, killing three faculty members and injuring two other faculty members and a staff member. No students were hurt.

The woman is in custody, but university spokesman Ray Garner said he could not identify her or the victims.

However, local television stations reported that she was a member of the faculty.

Huntsville Hospital spokesman Burr Ingram said two of the injured people were in a critical condition, but the third was now stable.

Undergraduate Erin Johnson told the Huntsville Times that a biology faculty meeting was under way when she heard screams coming from the room.

The shooting happened in the university's Shelby Centre, a science building. University police secured the building and students were evacuated.

The Huntsville campus has about 7,500 students in northern Alabama, not far from the Tennessee line.

The university posted a message on its website soon after the incident to tell students that the campus was now closed and all they were being encouraged to go home. Counsellors were available to speak with students.

Mr Garner said the campus had been closed to allow police to carry out their investigations.

He said at a news conference that the shooting was not unlike one the Huntsville area experienced a week ago, when a 14-year-old pupil was fatally shot in a school hallway, allegedly by a fellow pupil.

"This town is unaccustomed to shootings and multiple deaths," he said.