一名枪手在位于密西西比州克利夫兰市的德尔塔州立大学校园里，开枪打死了一名教授，原因暂时未知。

当地玻利瓦尔县法医部门确认，死者是该校的一名男性历史系教授，名字是Ethan Schmidt 。当地法医部门说，死者是一位50多岁的白人男子，他是在该大学的乔布-霍尔大楼的办公室里被开枪打死的。

该校的所有大楼都被要求反锁上，警方要求人们“就地庇护”。

美国多个执法机构目前正在搜捕这名尚未归案的枪手，据说是地理系教授Shannon Lamb，看名字是女性。

A gunman has shot and killed a professor on the campus of Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi.

The victim has been identified as Ethan Schmidt, who worked in the history department.

Police are searching for the gunman and have released the name of their suspect, a geography professor at the university called Shannon Lamb.

They are also linking Mr Lamb, who is 45, to the fatal shooting of a woman 300 miles away earlier on Monday.

The woman was found dead at her home in Gautier, Mississippi.

At a news conference, police did not say why Mr Lamb was a suspect in either murder but they did say they thought he was no longer on the university grounds.

"At this time we don't think he's on campus, but we're not taking anything lightly," a spokesman said.

Police were first called at 10.18 local time (16:18 GMT) and told shots had been fired.

All campus buildings were then locked from the inside and officials advised people to shelter as police cleared students from buildings on campus.

Schmidt, who specialised in Native American and colonial history, was shot in his office inside the university's Jobe Hall building, police said.

Don Allan Mitchell, a colleague, called Schmidt "a gentleman in every sense of the word" and "a terrific family man".

Roughly 3,500 students are enrolled at the university near the Arkansas border.

Classes have been cancelled for the day.

Image copyrightAP

Mr Lamb was apparently "easy going" and had taken some leave recently for "personal reasons," Don Mitchell, an associate professor of English at the university, told FOX News.

Freshman Noah Joyner, 18, said he stayed inside a bathroom in his dorm buildings during the lockdown.

"There were people banging on the doors to have somebody let them in," Mr Joyner, a swimmer at Delta State, told the Associated Press. "It was pretty terrifying to hear people banging on the door."

Police helicopters are circling campus and hundreds of officers have swept buildings.