(Image source from: GlobalNews)

Two people were killed at least four left injured after a student launched open fire inside the University of North Carolina’s Charlotte campus on Tuesday.

According to preliminary reports, the alleged shooter fired the fatal rounds at around 6p.m. It was the last day of the varsity's academic year.

Local emergency services said two people had been killed, while another two sustained life-threatening injuries and two more were being treated for less serious wounds.

The shooter has been identified as the 22-year-old history student at the campus and has been taken into custody. In the meantime, a local Fox television affiliate identified the dead as boys aged 17 and 18.

"Scene secure. One in custody. No reason to believe anyone else involved," the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department tweeted, adding that law enforcement and university staff were sweeping buildings to round up those still sheltering.

Video footage posted on social media showed anxious students filing away from the school with their hands raised. It was not immediately clear-cut which part of the school the shooter was targeting. "It was a really scary experience to hear the shots and have to run... I didn't think. I would have to experience something like that," one student told NBC News.

Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles said she was "in shock" after hearing of the rampage. "My thoughts are with the families of those who lost their lives, those injured, the entire UNCC community and the courageous first responders who sprang into action to help others," she wrote on Twitter.

The shooting comes just days after a shooting on a synagogue in Poway at California by teenage gunman. The shooter claimed life of one and injuring three others.

According to the figures published by government, 40,000 people were killed by firearms in the United States in 2017 - two-thirds of them suicides - the highest annual toll in five decades.

By Sowmya Sangam