Florida State University shooting: Three shot in Tallahassee campus library as 'heartbroken' students told to take cover

Announcement rang out that 'there has been a shooting in the library'

Police investigate a shooting at Strozier Library on Florida State campus on Thursday, Nov. 20, 2014, in Tallahassee, Fla (AP)

Three people have been wounded and an armed assailant shot dead in a shooting incident at the Florida State University campus in Tallahassee.

The incident took place inside the university's Strozier Library, where the silence was broken by five or six gunshots that rang out across campus.

Tallahassee police said they confronted the suspect outside the library block, where he opened fire on officers and was shot dead.

Three people were wounded in the incident, according to police spokesman David Northway. Hospital officials had earlier said two victims were being treated at the Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare hospital after they were admitted in the early hours of Thursday.

File: The Doak Campbell Stadium on Florida State University's Tallahassee campus (Wikimedia/UkrNole 485)

Graduate student Alexandra Lauren told CNN that she was in the library at the time of the shooting.

"We heard the gunshots, and then it was in a matter of seconds the entire first floor just seemed to go into chaos," Lauren said, her voice wavering.

"It was very scary. I'm just more heartbroken than anything else. FSU means a lot to me," she added.

Earlier an alert on the FSU website warned that a "dangerous situation" was unfolding, while video footage posted to YouTube showed students hiding between book stacks as an announcement played saying "there has been a shooting in the library".

The notice on the university site read: "FSU alert! Dangerous situation! Main campus Tallahassee. Seek shelter immediately, away from doors and windows."

John Ehab, a student from Tampa, said he was on the library's third floor when he heard multiple gunshots.

"Everyone heard them," he said.

Student Nikolai Hernandez said he was in his bedroom across from the library when he heard five or six rapid gunshots.

"It was a consecutive bop, bop, bop, bop, bop," Mr Hernandez said. "It makes me definitely a little bit nervous. I was supposed to be in the library. I had a paper to do and I got a little bit lazy and decided not to do it."

A nursing supervisor declined to provide detail on the condition of the two victims being treated at hospital, stating simply: "We have two victims from a shooting that happened on the Florida State University campus."