(Newswire.net — June 1, 2016) — Los Angeles, Ca. – At least two people have been killed in a shooting at UCLA. The LAPD advise people to avoid campus which is under complete lockdown.
Reported shooting at the UCLA campus triggered a massive response from local and federal law enforcement Wednesday morning, LA Times reported.
At least two people have been killed in a possible murder-suicide incident around 10am which prompted a complete lockdown of the campus.
People still left in the proximity of the shooting in an engineering building on campus are asked to take shelter, the university said.
Media reported massive response by the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Hundreds of LAPD officers are deployed to completely lockdown the Westwood campus and surrounding neighborhoods, the media reported.
UCLA has about 43,000 students, however, it is not yet known how many are in danger right now. Authorities urged people to lock themselves in buildings and wait for further instructions.
Helicopter news footage showed students walking out in a line during the incident with their hands above their head, being escorted to safety by armed police officers.
The motive for shooting was not immediately clear, according to LAPD representatives, however, the Daily Bruin reported that witnesses described the shooter as dressed all in black and wearing a bullet proof vest, which is unusual. There is no information so far if the described shooter is alone or accompanied by other shooters.
“At first we weren’t really sure it was real,” said student, Landen Baldwin, from his apartment a few blocks from campus. “It was a very quick turnaround time between the alert about police activity and the confirmation that there was a shooting. This one was very definitive within a couple minutes that the situation was as drastic as it was.”
“We’re still searching to see if there’s a suspect in the area,” said UCLA Police Chief James Herren at a midday news conference. “It is certainly possible that one of the victims is a shooter.”
According Mehwish Khan, a 21-year-old biology student, everybody started running so she ran as well, storming into the library along with several other students.
“Everyone was very confused,” she told reporters over her cell phone. ”We got in a building, and no one knew what was going on,” she said, adding that lot of people thought it was a joke or a drill.
The campus is in a densely populated area of West LA which is under complete lockdown by police, while SWAT teams are sweeping the area.