BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (Reuters) - Three people were killed and one wounded in shootings at the University of Alabama at Huntsville on Friday, and a suspected shooter was in custody, a university spokesman and police said.

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"We have three confirmed people who are dead, one injured. The police have secured the building. The shooter is in custody," UA-Huntsville spokesman Ray Gardner told local television.

Huntsville police confirmed three people were dead.

Gardner said the suspect in custody was a female and that authorities had placed the campus in lockdown.

The shootings occurred just before 4 p.m. (2100 GMT) at the university's Shelby Center, local media said.

"I heard three shots and screaming," Melanie Gates, an engineering student at the campus, told Reuters.

She was near the exit of the Shelby Center when the shootings happened and she said the sound of the shots appeared to come from the third floor, where a biology faculty meeting was taking place.

(Reporting by Verna Gates and Peggy Gargis; Writing by Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Peter Cooney)