DEKALB, Illinois (CNN) -- A gunman dressed in black walked from behind a curtain at the front of a large lecture hall Thursday at Northern Illinois University and shot 22 people, four fatally, then killed himself, authorities said.
Seventeen victims were taken to Kishwaukee Community Hospital, its Web site said.
Of those, six were in critical condition and were flown to other hospitals. One fatality, a male, was confirmed -- but was not the gunman, the hospital said. Two were admitted, and three others were discharged. The other five were not addressed on the Web site.
Most of the injuries are head and chest gunshot wounds, a spokeswoman tells CNN.
The shooting occurred shortly after 3 p.m. (4 p.m. ET) in Cole Hall. The class runs from 2 p.m. until 3:15 p.m., university President John Peters said.
"It started and it stopped very quickly," said Police Chief Donald Grady. The gunman, whose identity has not been revealed publicly, was not a student at the NIU campus in DeKalb, west of Chicago, but "may have been a student somewhere else."
Police do not have an apparent motive now, Grady said.
Kevin McEnery said he was in the classroom when a man dressed in a black shirt, dark pants and black hat burst in carrying a shotgun.
"He just kicked the door open, just started shooting," said McEnery, who was in the class at the time. "All I really heard was just people screaming, yelling 'get out.' ... Close to 30 shots were fired."
There are about 162 registered students in the class that met in the large lecture hall.
"Witnesses say someone dressed in black came out from behind a screen in the front of the classroom and opened fire with a shotgun," Peters said.
The gunman fired from a stage at the front of the classroom, Grady said.
At 3:03 p.m., NIU police responded, and four minutes later, the campus was ordered into "a lockdown situation," he said.
At 3:20, an all-campus alert went out via the campus Web site, e-mail, voice mail, the campus crisis hotline, the news media and various alarm systems, he said.
"The message basically was: There's a gunman on campus, stay where you are, make yourself as safe as possible," he said.
Rosie Moroni, a student at the school, told CNN she was outside Cole Hall near the King Commons at 2:30 p.m. (3:30 p.m. ET) when she heard shots coming from the classroom she had intended to enter.
The shot was followed by "a lot of people screaming," then people ran out the doors yelling, "He's got a gun, call 9-1-1," she said.
"It was complete chaos ... it's very scary here right now."
By 4 p.m., police had swept the area "and determined there was only one gunman" and that he was dead.
Grady said the man used three guns during his rampage -- a shotgun, a Glock pistol and a small-caliber handgun -- and was still on the stage when he turned one of the guns on himself. The small-caliber handgun has not been recovered, he said. He said the shooter started with a shotgun, then switched to a pistol.
It appears that he acted alone, Grady said.
"As much as we do, it's unlikely that anyone would ever have the ability to stop an incident like this from beginning," he said.
Classes were canceled for the rest of the day and Friday.
Seven counseling areas were set up throughout the campus, and hotlines were established.
Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich declared a state of emergency, which will open the governor's disaster fund to reimburse local government entities for "extraordinary expenses related to the response in NIU DeKalb" and will allow the state Emergency Management Agency to provide assistance, the governor's office said in a statement.
The 113-year-old school is 65 miles west of downtown Chicago and has an enrollment of more than 25,000. The campus covers 755 acres.
A spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives told CNN that some of its agents were already on the scene to assist.
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He said ATF agents could help trace the weapon or weapons used.
An FBI spokesman said several of that agency's agents were en route to the scene to assist.
