At least two people were killed and nine others wounded Saturday afternoon at Brown University in Providence, the U.S. state of Rhode Island, campus officials said.

The two fatal victims and eight of the injured were students at Brown University, President Christina Paxson told a news conference on Saturday evening.

Six of the injured are in critical but stable condition, one is in critical condition, and another is stable, local media reported, citing the hospital.

Police said the incident occurred near an academic and research area on campus, where students were in the midst of their second day of final exams. Law enforcement officers were dispatched to the scene, and the investigation is ongoing.

Authorities said the suspected shooter is a male dressed in black and that an extensive search is underway.

As the shooter is still at large, the university said that the campus remained in lockdown, urging all members of the community to remain vigilant and shelter in place.

Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said the deadly shooting took place at the Barus and Holley building, which houses classrooms and laboratory space for the university's engineering and physics departments.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Saturday afternoon that he had been briefed on the shooting and that the FBI is on the scene.

Rhode Island Governor Dan McKee said state police and the state emergency management agency are coordinating with local law enforcement in response to the incident.

Brown University is a nonprofit research institution with some 7,300 undergraduate students and over 3,000 graduate students, according to its website.

Saturday's incident occurred on the eve of the 13th anniversary of the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in the state of Connecticut, where a gunman killed 20 first-graders and six educators, marking one of the deadliest school shootings in the country's history.

Gun violence has been a severe problem for U.S. society for decades. In the year 2025, the country has seen 389 mass shootings, resulting in the deaths of more than 1,100 children and teenagers under the age of 17, both on and off campus, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

The archive defines a mass shooting as an incident in which four or more people, excluding the perpetrator, are shot or killed.