Two students shot at Delaware State, campus closed

PHILADELPHIA, Sep 21 (Reuters) Two students were shot and wounded early today on the Delaware State University campus and police were hunting for a gunman, the university said.

Students at the Dover, Delaware, school were instructed to stay in their dormitories and classes were canceled for the day, the school said in a statement issued before the school day began.

Virginia Tech University administrators were criticized for not reacting swiftly following the April shooting when student Seung-Hui Cho gunned down 32 people and then killed himself in the worst mass shooting in modern US history.

University spokesman Carlos Holmes said a male suspect was still at large after the shooting which occurred at 12:54 a.m.

EDT (1024 IST). He said he did not have any information about who the assailant was.

''We have directed the student population to stay in their dormitories for their own safety. If we see students out and about we are going to tell them to move inside,'' Holmes said.

The wounded female student had ''potentially life-threatening'' injuries, and the male student was in ''stable condition,'' at a local hospital, he said. He told CNN later the female student was shot twice and the male once.

The campus was still mourning the August execution-style killing of three returning or incoming students in their hometown of Newark, New Jersey. A fourth student was wounded in that incident.

The university alerted students of the incident by telephone, the Web site and by flyers, a statement on its Web site said. It added that until the suspect is apprehended, students, faculty and staff are being directed to remain in their buildings.

Students and staff who were not on the campus were told to stay away until further notice. The university directed nonessential personnel not to report to work.

''I don't think any institution in the country did not learn from Virginia Tech and we certainly did,'' Holmes said on CNN when asked about decision to lock down the campus.

Founded in 1891, the historically black university has about 3,300 undergraduate students on a 400-acre residential campus about 160 km northeast of Washington, D.C.

REUTERS ARB RN1922