LAST UPDATE | 14 Nov 2022

SEVEN UNIVERSITY were dead following weekend violence that struck two US campuses in the states of Idaho and Virginia, authorities said.

University of Virginia have now confirmed that the suspect in a shooting that left three people dead was in custody. 

The campus in Charlottesville, Virginia was locked down early Monday while helicopters and police searched for a man considered to be “armed and dangerous,” the UVA Office of Emergency Management tweeted.

A student at the university identified as Christopher Darnell Jones Jr was suspected to have carried out the shooting on campus Sunday night, UVA president Jim Ryan said in a statement.

“This is a traumatic incident for everyone in our community, and we have cancelled classes for today,” Ryan said, adding that support would be made available to students and faculty. 

UVA UPDATE: Police have the suspect in custody. This is the final alert message.

— UVA Police Department (@UVAPolice) November 14, 2022

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin said state officers were coordinating with the campus police department and local authorities.

“Please shelter in place while the authorities work to locate the suspect,” he wrote on Twitter.

More than 2,000 miles to the west in the Rocky Mountain state of Idaho, police were investigating a separate incident in which four students were found dead yesterday in a home near the University of Idaho campus, believed to be the “victims of homicide.”

Officers responded to a call in the town of Moscow, near the University of Idaho, about an unconscious individual.

“Upon arrival, officers discovered four individuals who were deceased,” police said in a statement.

“It is with deep sadness that I share with you that the university was notified today of the death of four University of Idaho students living off-campus believed to be victims of homicide,” University of Idaho president Scott Green said in a statement.

© Agence France-Presse