A university employee was being sought Monday after a history professor was shot dead Monday in his own office, according to authorities in the Gulf Coast state of Mississippi.

Students and employees at Delta State University were ordered to remain in place for hours with the doors and windows locked and the campus was shut down, said Charles Bingham, police chief in the town of Cleveland, about 150 kilometres north-west of Jackson, the state capital.

“At this time we are going methodically, building to building to let the students leave and go home safely,” Bingham said.

He identified the man being sought as instructor Shannon Lamb.

Bingham declined to provide any information about Lamb’s teaching position or connection to the slain man, Ethan Schmidt, 45.

Authorities suspect a link between the university shooting and the fatal shooting of a woman in the town of Gautier, nearly 500 kilometres away in southern Mississippi. Bingham refused to explain the possible connection.

Gautier police confirmed that Lamb was a suspect in the slaying there, Mississippi newspaper the Sun Herald reported online. Lamb had reported the woman’s death by telephone, according to the newspaper.

Delta State University, which has about 4,000 students, said on its website that Lamb is a geographer and coordinator of social sciences education. He obtained his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees at Delta State.

(c)2015 DPA, Berlin

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