Witness Katie Sun told the Brown Daily Herald student newspaper she was studying in a nearby building when she heard gunfire. She ran to her dorm, leaving all her belongings behind.

“It was honestly quite terrifying. The shots seemed like they were coming from… where the classrooms are,” she said.

Six hours after the shooting, the gunman was still at large, and some 400 police ranging from FBI agents to campus cops swarmed the quaint New England campus.

“I can confirm that there are two individuals who have died this afternoon, and there are another eight in critical status, though stable,” Providence, Rhode Island Mayor Brett Smiley told a news conference.

A ninth person who “received fragments from the shooting” was later taken to the hospital, authorities said.

Police released ten seconds of footage of the suspect walking briskly down a deserted street, seen from behind after opening fire inside a first-floor classroom. — AFP