Two people were killed on Saturday and nine were wounded in a shooting at Brown University, the mayor of Providence, Rhode Island said. The suspect remains at large, according to police.

A gunman killed two people and wounded nine others on Saturday at Brown University, plunging the eastern US campus into lockdown as hundreds of police hunted the suspect late into the night.

The streets around the university in the state of Rhode Island were filled with emergency vehicles hours after the gunfire at a building where exams were taking place.

The shooting is the latest in a long line of school attacks in the United States, where attempts to restrict access to firearms face political deadlock.

Witness Katie Sun told the Brown Daily Herald student newspaper she was studying in a nearby building when she heard gunfire. She ran to her dorm, leaving all her belongings behind.

"It was honestly quite terrifying. The shots seemed like they were coming from... where the classrooms are," she said.

Six hours after the shooting, the gunman was still at large, and some 400 police ranging from FBI agents to campus cops swarmed the quaint New England campus.

"I can confirm that there are two individuals who have died this afternoon, and there are another eight in critical status, though stable," Providence, Rhode Island Mayor Brett Smiley told a news conference.

A ninth person who "received fragments from the shooting" was later taken to the hospital, authorities said.

Police released ten seconds of footage of the suspect walking briskly down a deserted street, seen from behind after opening fire inside a first-floor classroom.

University officials stressed that the campus was still in lockdown as midnight approached.

Ten of the 11 victims were students, Brown University President Christina Paxson said in a late night briefing.

"My heart breaks for the students who were looking forward to a holiday break and instead are dealing with another horrifying mass shooting," Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse posted on X.