Three wounded in US varsity shooting

At least three people were wounded Tuesday in a shootout on the north campus of Lone Star University in Houston and a fourth person suffered a heart attack, media reports said.

The sheriff's department of Harris County, where the campus is located, said that the shootout occurred "shortly after noon" in one of the campus libraries.

Jed Young, the university's communications director, told CNN that the shootout erupted between two men, one of whom was shot once and is being held by police. Two other people were hit in the crossfire and were taken to hospitals.

Young could not confirm if anyone had died in the incident or the whereabouts of the second person involved in the shooting.

University media director Vicki Cassidy said that she could not provide any further information as yet because the situation was "very chaotic".

Television news reports showed images of people - including law enforcement officers - running around on campus, as well as several people being taken to ambulances on gurneys.

According to its web page, Lone Star University is the largest educational institution in Houston with approximately 90,000 students distributed among more than a dozen campuses.

This new shooting comes just a month after 20 children and six adults were killed by a lone gunman at a Connecticut elementary school, a massacre that reopened debate on how to prevent gun violence in the United States.