NEW YORK - Multiple people were shot on Dec 13 at Brown University, the prestigious Ivy League school in Rhode Island, a Providence city official said.

No one was in custody, and a shelter-in-place order remained in effect for the campus.

Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said two people were killed, and eight are critically injured.

He added that the police are still searching for the shooter.

Deputy police chief Timothy O’Hara told a press conference that the suspect is a “male dressed in black” who exited the complex at Brown University.

It is unknown how the suspect entered the engineering building, he added.

Brown University’s police chief Rodney Chatman described the shooting investigation as “a very fluid situation” that was continuing to evolve.

The university remained on lockdown late afternoon on Dec 13 after an alert warned students and faculty of an active shooter near an engineering building on campus.

A Providence police spokesperson said there were multiple people shot, but did not specify the number or condition of the victims.

Other news outlets said as many as 20 individuals were injured, but Reuters has not confirmed those reports.

Ms Kristy DosReis, the city of Providence’s chief public information officer for public safety, declined to provide details on the number of people injured or whether any were killed.

“There have been multiple people shot,” Ms DosReis said. “It continues to be an active investigation and we are urging people to shelter in place.”

In an alert to the campus shortly after 4.15pm, the school instructed students and faculty to lock doors, silence phones and hide until further notice.

A second university alert shortly before 5pm said a suspect was in custody, but the university later reversed itself and said no one had been apprehended. The college continued to urge people on campus to shelter in place. No information about potential victims was provided.

“As a last resort, take action to protect yourself,” the school wrote in its initial alert late afternoon on Dec 13.

The Brown University Department of Public Safety did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Providence Police Department asked residents to avoid Hope Street near Brown University because of a “heavy” emergency response, according to a social media post. Dozens of ambulances could be seen lining Thayer Street and Angell Street, which bisect the campus.

The alert was issued for the Barus and Holley engineering building, a 220,000-square-foot facility, according to the school’s website.

President Donald Trump said on social media that he had been briefed on the shooting and that the FBI was on the scene.

“God bless the victims and the families of the victims!” he wrote.