CHICAGO (Reuters) - A gunman wounded at least 15 people when he opened fire with a shotgun in a university classroom outside Chicago on Thursday, authorities said.
It appeared that the gunman had been killed.
"Campus police report that the immediate danger haspassed," the Web site of Northern Illinois University in DeKalbsaid on its Web site. "The gunman is no longer a threat."
The local student newspaper and other media outlets saidthe gunman was dead, possibly by suicide.
A hospital near the campus said at least three victimssuffered head wounds, and as many as 15 wounded people wereexpected. Local media reported 18 people were shot, includingthe gunman.
One student told local radio that roughly 140 students werein a geology classroom when the man opened fire. Otherwitnesses said students were bleeding profusely from neck andother wounds after being hit by buckshot from the shotgun.
Ambulances swarmed onto the 25,000-student campus, which is65 miles (104 km) west of downtown Chicago, and classes werecancelled, the university said on its Web site.
One male student said he was sitting in the class, takingnotes when the gunman entered from behind a curtain, firing ashotgun. "He was just shooting, and people were screaming."
A woman who was outside the classroom when the shootingoccurred said students fled in terror.
U.S. schools and colleges have seen a series of shootingincidents in recent years.
A university in Blacksburg, Virginia, Virginia Tech, becamethe site of the deadliest rampage in U.S. history in April lastyear when a gunman killed 32 people and himself.
(Reporting by Andrew Stern and Michael Conlon; Editing byStuart Grudgings)
