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A person of interest was in custody after a shooting that rocked a US university campus during final exams, Police in Rhode Island said on Sunday. Col. Oscar Perez, chief of the Providence police, said at a news conference that the detained person was in their 30s and that authorities are not currently searching for anyone else. He declined to say where the person was arrested and whether the person was connected to the university.

The shooting erupted on Saturday afternoon, after 4pm, in the engineering building of the Ivy League school at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, during final exams. Two people died, while nine more were confirmed injured following the incident. Hundreds of police officers scoured the Brown University campus along with nearby neighborhoods for hours and pored over video in pursuit of a suspected shooter who opened fire in a classroom and then fled the scene on foot.

Officers released a short clip of a suspect, dressed in all black, walking along a street outside of the main university building - although is not clear if the same person has been arrested.

Following a manhunt that involved more than 400 officers, a heavy police presence will remain in the area on Sunday, officials warned. Many local businesses announced they would remain closed and expressed shock and heartbreak as the community continued to process the news of the shooting.

"Everybody's reeling, and we have a lot of recovery ahead of us," Brown University President Christina Paxson said at the news conference. "Our community's strong and we'll get through it, but it's devastating."

Earlier, Paxson said she was told 10 people who were shot were students. Another person was injured by fragments from the shooting but it was not clear if the victim was a student, she said.

Investigators were not immediately sure how the shooter got inside the first-floor classroom. Outer doors of the building were unlocked but rooms being used for final exams required badge access, Providence Mayor Brett Smiley said.

Discussing the city's efforts to prepare for a mass shooting, the mayor said: "We all, intellectually, knew it could happen anywhere, including here, but that's not the same as it happening in our community, and so this is an incredibly upsetting and emotional time for Providence, for Brown, for all of us. It's not something that we should have to train for, but we have."