Texas College Shootout: Three People Injured

A shootout between two gunmen at a Texas community college has left three people wounded, including the two suspects.

Harris County Sheriff's spokesman Armando Tello said the shooting was the result of an altercation between two people, and at least one was a student.

He said both people involved in the altercation at Lone Star College in north Houston were wounded and taken to hospital.

Mr Tello said a college maintenance man was injured after getting caught in the crossfire and taken to hospital, and a female student was treated for a medical complication.

The college earlier posted a message on its Twitter feed that said the shooting was "between two individuals" and that the situation was under control.

Relatives identified Jody Neal, 24, as one of the people shot and said he was taken to Harris Health Ben Taub Hospital Emergency Centre.

"All I know he got shot three times. That's all I know," Reginald Neal, who identified himself as Jody Neal's uncle, told KPRC-TV. "He got shot in one of his arms, in the stomach and the leg."

Stacy Neal, Jody Neal's sister, said: "He was sitting in the study room. There (were) three people on the computer and a guy walked up the stairs and opened fire on him. They said it was just one guy that came in with a gun."

Aerial footage from local television stations showed police cars and ambulances parked on the Lone Star College System campus about 20 miles north of downtown Houston.

Emergency personnel could be seen tending to people on stretchers, while others ran from a building led by officers.

The college issued an alert on its website telling students and staff to take immediate shelter or avoid the campus. The school later announced the campus had been evacuated and would remain closed for the rest of the day.

Cody Harris, 20, said he was in a classroom with about six or seven other students waiting for a psychology class to start when he heard eight shots. He and other students looked at each other, said "I guess we should get out of here," and fled.

"I was just worried about getting out," Mr Harris said. "I called my grandmother and asked her to pick me up."

The Lone Star College System has an enrolment of 90,000 students and six college campuses, according to its website.

Along with the college, four nearby schools in the Aldine Independent School District went into lockdown, a district spokesman said.

Lone Star student Daniel Flores, 19, said he was in a tutoring lab on the second floor doing homework when he heard six to seven shots.

"I didn't think they were shots," he said. "It sounded like someone was kicking a door."

About 60 people were in the lab, and they began running out of the room once they realised the sound was gunfire, he said. They fled to a nearby student services centre, where authorities kept them there for about 30 minutes before letting them go.