A young gunman stormed a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University on Thursday and shot 21 people, five of them fatally, before killing himself.

The shooting took place in an afternoon geology class when the gunman, all dressed in black and carrying a shotgun and two handguns, walked in front of the lecture hall and opened fire at some 160 students, CNN reported.

Four of the fatalities were female, university president John Peters said.

Police said the gunman's motive was still unknown and it appeared that he acted alone. The identity of the killer has not been released yet, but authorities said he is not a student in the campus, probably a student from elsewhere.

The 113-year-old school is 105 km west of downtown Chicago and has an enrollment of more than 25,000.

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