USC shooting: Gunman opens fire near University of South Carolina injuring at least one

Police say the shooting occurred at an apartment complex next to the school’s campus

Police were called to respond to the incident (Larry W Smith/Getty)

Police are said to be searching for a gunman near the University of South Carolina, with one person believed to have been injured after reports of shots being fired.

The University of South Carolina Upstate in Spatanburg issued a Twitter alert warning of shots being fired, with four buildings on campus placed on lockdown. That lockdown was later lifted.

Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Lt. Kevin Bobo told the Associated Press that the shooting occurred at an apartment complex next to the school’s campus and one person suffered a gunshot wound to the arm.

A number of police are on the scene, at the Campus Edge apartments.

No arrests have been reported.

The school has an undergraduate student base of about 5,600 students and is affiliated with the University of South Carolina in Columbia.

The shooting comes as a fierce debate again begins on Congress about the issue of gun control. That debate has been sparked by the mass shooting seen in Sutherland Springs, Texas - where a gunman killed 26 people and injured another 20 in the state's deadliest such attack.

That made two record mass shootings in the space of a month, after Stephen Paddock killed 58 people and injured more than 500 in Las Vegas when he opened fire on a music festival from the window of his room at the nearby Mandalay Bay hotel. He later killed himself.