(dpa) - Northern Illinois University (NUI) cancelled classes for an extended holiday weekend on Friday, reeling from a shooting spree in which a gunman ran amok in a lecture hall, killing five people and wounding 21 before shooting himself.
NIU President John Peters said late Thursday that the suspected gunman was dead "apparently from a self- inflicted wound."
Police have identified the suspect, but have yet to name him. Peters gave details of him as a former NIU sociology student.
University officials said all NIU classes have been cancelled until Tuesday, with Monday already a national holiday. NIU is located in Dekalb, some 75 kilomtres west of Chicago, Illinois.
A graduate student was teaching an introductory geology class about 3 pm (2100 GMT) in a large auditorium inside Cole Hall, one of NIU's main classroom buildings, when the gunman burst onto the stage, armed with a shotgun and two handguns, Peters said.
"A lot of people were screaming. Everybody started running for the door," said a student Zach Seward, adding, "It was just complete chaos."
Peters described the attack as "rapid and brief," ending with the gunman apparently killing himself before the arrival of police, who were on the scene within three minutes, Peters said.
The gunman and three of his victims died at the scene. Two others later died at a local hospital.
The five victims included four women and one man. All those shot by the gunman were enrolled at NIU including the instructor, who was among the wounded, Peters said. Seven of the wounded were in critical condition.
The campus was placed on security lockdown for more than an hour on word of the incident.
The assailant was described by several witnesses as a young man, apparently college-aged, dressed in black clothes. He reportedly first fired the shotgun before turning to the handguns and inflicting several head wounds, reports said.
"Our records confirmed (the gunman) was not currently enrolled, but in spring of 2007 was enrolled as a graduate student in sociology," Peters said.
Shannon Smith, 21, told the Daily Herald, a newspaper that covers a large swath of Chicago's western suburbs, that she was planning to meet friends who were attending class inside the lecture hall when the gunfire began.
"We saw bloody kids coming out of the building and people were frantic," she said. "People were running all over the place."
The university website urged all students to contact their families.