Savannah State University shooting: Student dies after gunman opens fire on campus

It comes just a day after the murder of two Virginia journalists live on camera

Authorities respond to a shooting at Savannah State University on Thursday night. ((WTOC-TV))

Authorities are investigating a shooting at Savannah State University that left one student dead on Friday night.

Christopher Starks, a 22-year-old junior from Atlanta, was fatally shot at the student union at SSU in Georgia, according to a university news release. Mr Starks suffered a fatal gunshot wound and later died at a local hospital.

The university was placed on lockdown following the shooting then lifted at 11:45pm as there was no longer an active shooter on campus.

Administrators at the historically black college sent an email to staff and students saying that although “public safety has lifted the campus lockdown and traffic has resumed” they should remain in the rooms.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is currently searching for a male suspect with assistance from the SSU Police Department. No arrests have been made.

According to Tiger's Roar, the university's student newspaper, there was blood on the floor of the student union after the incident.

The incident at the university comes just a day after the murder of two television journalists who were shot on air by a disgruntled former employee in Indiana and two months after the murder of nine black parishioners at a landmark African-American church in neighbouring South Carolina.

The motive for the attack is currently unknown.