LAS VEGAS – A lone shooter opened fire on the main campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, on Dec 6, killing three people and wounding a fourth before the suspect was shot dead by police, the authorities said at a news briefing hours afterwards.

Police declined to publicly identify the assailant, going so far as to avoid any mention of the suspect’s gender, nor did they give any information about the four victims struck by gunfire or their connection to the university.

The surviving gunshot victim was listed in stable condition, according to Sheriff Kevin McMahill of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

He said several other people suffered panic attacks during the pandemonium, and a number of officers were treated for minor injuries sustained during a search of the sprawling campus for any additional victims or suspects. None were found.

No mention was made of a possible motive for the violence, and police did not disclose the type of firearm used.

Dr Vincent Perez, a professor at the school, which is known also by its initials UNLV, told MSNBC by phone that he had heard a lot of gunfire before taking cover on campus.

“I would say just seven, eight shots, one after another, loud and very loud,” he said. “As soon as we heard that, we ran back inside and we realised this is a real shooting, and there’s an active shooter on campus.”

Official details of the incident remained sketchy.

After receiving a call reporting an active shooter on campus, law enforcement officers “immediately responded and engaged the suspect”, university police spokesman Adam Garcia said at the briefing.

“The suspect is deceased,” he added.

Sheriff McMahill said the shooting began on the fourth floor of Beam Hall, a building that houses the university’s business school, then moved to other floors before finally ending outside where the suspect was “neutralised”.

Police said the university would remain closed at least till Dec 8.

The UNLV campus, located just over 3km east of the Las Vegas Strip, has an enrolment of some 25,000 undergraduates and 8,000 post-graduates and doctoral candidates.

The sheriff said students on the campus appeared to have been badly shaken, as were people in the aftermath of a mass shooting in 2017, when a gunman opened fire from a high-rise hotel window on a music festival below along the Las Vegas Strip.

Sixty people were killed and hundreds more were wounded in what still ranks as the deadliest mass shooting by a single gunman in US history. REUTERS