Gunman kills two students and wounds nine at Brown University

Officials were looking for a male dressed in black and released a video of the suspect

Tight security around the city of Providence as police continue their manhunt. AP

Police in the US state of Rhode ​Island were searching for a suspect late on Saturday after a ‌shooting at Brown University left two students dead and eight others critically wounded at the Ivy League school.

Brett Smiley, the Mayor of Providence, said a ninth person was hurt by bullet fragments.

Streets around campus were blocked and packed with emergency vehicles hours after the shooting and law enforcement officials heightened security around the city as police continued their manhunt.

"The individual responsible is still at large," Mr Smiley told reporters. Deputy police chief Timothy O’Hara said the suspect had not been identified.

The suspect walks on a street in Providence, after leaving the scene of shooting, in this screengrab taken from a handout video. Reuters

Officials said they were ‍looking for a male dressed in black and ‍released a video of the suspect, who Mr O’Hara said may have been wearing a mask. He said officials had ⁠retrieved shell casings from the scene of the shooting, but police were not prepared to release details.

Officials said the gunman escaped after shooting students in Brown's Barus & Holley engineering building, where exams were taking place.

Streets around Brown University's campus were blocked and packed with emergency vehicles hours after the shooting. AP

"We are a week and a half away from Christmas. And two people died today and another eight are in the hospital," Mr Smiley said earlier in the evening. "So please pray for those families."

Brown is on College Hill in Providence, Rhode Island's state capital. The university has hundreds of buildings, including lecture halls, laboratories and dormitories.

"This is the day one hopes never happens, and it has," Brown's president Christina Paxson told reporters, confirming all or nearly all of the victims were students.

First responders carry a stretcher near the building at Brown University where the attack was carried out. AFP

As news of the shooting spread, the school told students to shelter in place.

Brown student Chiang-Heng Chien told local TV station WJAR he was working in a lab with three other students when he saw the text about the active shooter situation a block away. They waited under desks for about two hours, he said.

Rhode Island Governor ⁠Daniel McKee vowed that the shooter would be brought to justice. "We're going to make sure ​that we catch the individual that brought so much ‍suffering to so many people."

The search for the suspect was hampered in part because downtown Providence was crowded with holiday shoppers and thousands of people attending concerts, local ⁠media said. Federal law enforcement ‌and police from surrounding cities and towns were assisting in the search, officials said. According to local news reports, venues across the city ⁠were bringing in extra security.

US President Donald Trump said he had been briefed on the ⁠situation, which he called 'terrible'. EPA

US President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House that he had been briefed on the ⁠situation, which he called "terrible".

"All we can do right now is pray for the victims and for those that were very badly hurt."

Compared to many countries, mass shootings in schools, workplaces, and places of worship occur more frequently in the US, which has some of the most permissive gun laws in the developed world.