Report: No "existing threat" at University of South Carolina

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- Shots were fired Thursday on the campus of the University of South Carolina, according to an alert issued by the university. Around 2:15 p.m., the school issued another alert indicating there was "no longer an existing threat."

The initial University of South Carolina alert came around 1: 20 p.m. The incident happened at the university's new school of public health, according to the alert, which told the campus community to "seek safe shelter" and to "obey officials."

The school issued the initial alert via e-mail and Twitter, reports CBS affiliate WLTX.

The Arnold School of Public Health is on Assembly Street in downtown Columbia, a couple of blocks from the statehouse. It remained closed Thursday afternoon.

Law enforcement officials told WLTX earlier that the shooter was inside the health building. It is unclear if anyone was injured and ambulances were see leaving the scene.

Multiple buildings on campus were locked down, and students and media have been moved about two blocks away from where the shooting was reported, according to the station.

A heavy police presence could be seen in the area.

Student Hayden Dunn, a senior from Myrtle Beach, said he was in the building about 1 p.m., getting in an elevator to change classes, when a police officer also got inside. Dunn said the officer asked whether anyone had heard gunshots, but they hadn't.

Dunn said he went to class, then an alarm sounded five minutes later, and people rushed outside. Another officer told him shots had been fired, he said.

"Otherwise, you wouldn't have known anything happened," Dunn said.

Some roads were blocked in the immediate area Thursday, but students still walked around campus, along with some vehicles that drove where they could.

A school spokesman would not immediately comment on the shooting.