The 43-year-old gunman had no known affiliation to the university, and his motive remains a mystery, police said at an early morning news briefing more than five hours after the violence began on the sprawling East Lansing campus, about 90 miles northwest of Detroit.

Details about the sequence events remained sketchy, but Chris Rozman, interim deputy chief of the university police, said shots were fired in two locations, an academic building called Berkey Hall and the Michigan State University (MSU) Union building.

Police swarming the campus in response to the shooting, which began shortly after 8 p.m., found victims at both locations, Rozman told reporters at the televised briefing.

Rozman said investigators had no information about the motive, adding that the university was not aware of any threats made to the campus before Monday's bloodshed.

Rozman said three victims were killed and five were taken to a hospital in the nearby city of Lansing, the state capital, all of them listed in critical condition. Two of the dead were at Berkey Hall and the other at the MSU Union.

Officials declined to provide any details about the victims, some of whose identities and relationship to the university were still being determined, Rozman said.

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