Last Updated Oct 1, 2015 5:48 PM EDT
ROSEBURG, Ore. -- At least 13 people are dead after a gunman opened fire at an Oregon community college Thursday, Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum said.
Rosenblum said the gunman is also dead. It isn't clear whether the gunman is among the 13 people who died. Rosenblum also said 20 people were wounded, many critically.
In a brief statement to reporters, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown described the gunman as a 20-year-old man.
"We are holding the community of Douglas County in our hearts today," she said.
The shooting happened at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, about 180 miles south of Portland, in Douglas County. The local fire district advised people via Twitter to stay away from the school. It later tweeted that there were "multiple casualties" but did not elaborate.
Eighteen-year-old Kortney Moore of Rogue River tells the Roseburg News-Review newspaper that she was in a writing class when a shot came through a window.
She says the gunman entered her classroom, told people to get on the ground and then asked people to stand up and state their religion before opening fire.
Krys Denino, a mother of two and first-year nursing student at the college, was on campus when the shooting started.
She told CBSN by phone that she initially thought what she heard was from a construction project and didn't realize the sounds were gunshots until she saw a young woman running toward her. She heard another gunshot and then started running to her car.
A photographer for the Roseburg News-Review newspaper said he saw people being loaded into multiple ambulances and taken to the hospital.
View GalleryA patient is wheeled into the emergency room at Mercy Medical Center following a shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, Oct. 1, 2015. The News-Review
The sheriff's office reported on Twitter that it received a call about the shooting at 10:38 a.m.
Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin said at a news conference Thursday afternoon that officers from around the county immediately responded to the college and upon arriving there, located the shooter in one of the buildings on campus.
Hanlin said officers engaged the suspect and there was an exchange of gunfire and the shooter was "neutralized."
Hanlin would not comment on the number of fatalities and said the investigation was "very active."
According to Hanlin, the Oregon State Police, the FBI, the U.S. Marshals Service, and multiple local law enforcement agencies are assisting in the investigation.
Students and faculty members were being bused to the Douglas County Fairgrounds, the sheriff's office said.
A spokeswoman for the Oregon department that oversees community colleges in the state said she had not received any detailed information about the shooting.
"It's extremely concerning and sad," said Endi Hartigan, spokeswoman for the Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission.
The school has about 3,000 students. Its website was down Thursday.
Mercy Medical Center in Roseburg reported that it had received nine patients from the shooting, with more on the way.
PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center in Springfield said it received three female patients between the ages of 18 and 34 via helicopter. Dr. Hans Notenboom of the emergency department said two of the patients went directly into the operating room.
Former Umpqua Community College President Joe Olson, who retired in June after four years, said the school had no formal security staff, just one officer on a shift.
One of the biggest debates on campus last year was whether to post armed security officers on campus to respond to a shooting.
"I suspect this is going to start a discussion across the country about how community colleges prepare themselves for events like this," he said.
Authorities respond to a report of a shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, Thursday, October 1, 2015. Michael Sullivan /The News-Review via AP
The White House said President Barack Obama was briefed on the situation by his Homeland Security Adviser Lisa Monaco. He was to continue receiving updates throughout the day.
The rural town of Roseburg lies west of the Cascade Mountains in an area where the timber industry has struggled. In recent years, officials have tried to promote the region as a tourist destination for vineyards and outdoor activities.
According to Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun-control group founded by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, 88 people are killed by gun violence in America each day. Since the December 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, there have been at least 142 school shootings in America -- an average of nearly one a week, the organization says.
Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday called on the nation to implement gun safety measures.
Now Oregon. We weep again as a nation. Is the answer to our gun violence epidemic to do nothing? Again? Come on America! We solve problems
— Eric Holder (@EricHolder) October 1, 2015Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said Thursday that it's beyond her comprehension that "we are seeing these mass murders happen again and again and again."
Clinton said that the nation needs to "get the political will to do everything we can to keep people safe." She says there's a way to have sensible gun control measures that keep firearms out of the wrong hands and save lives. The former secretary of state says she's committed to doing everything she can to achieve that.
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