A 43-year-old shooter has murdered seven people and wounded three at Oikos University, a private university in Oakland, California, that caters to Christian students.

The shooting spree has emerged as one of the deadliest attacks on a campus in California history.

Gunfire erupted inside the single-story building that houses Oikos University, a private Christian college about 10:30 a.m. (1:30 p.m. ET), on Monday, CNN reported.

Police captured the suspected gunman inside an Alameda grocery store five miles away from the shooting site at Oikos University after he allegedly walked to the customer service counter and told employees, "I just shot some people", reported The San Francisco Chronicle.

The suspect used a .45-caliber handgun, spraying a classroom with gunfire and firing additional shots as he ran out.

Goh had been a nursing student at Oikos University, located at 7850 Edgewater Road in East Oakland, and there was some kind of dispute that may have resulted in him getting kicked out of at least one class, a source is quoted as saying.

Oikos University, which caters to the Korean American Christian community, offers degrees in theology, music, nursing and Asian medicine, according to its website. Several of the victims were students, police spokeswoman Johnna Watson said, cited by CNN.

The relationship between the suspect and any of those shot remained unknown Monday night, as detectives processed "a very bloody scene with lots of evidence."

Several of the survivors, including the wounded, hid behind locked doors or desks as the shooting went on. The suspect took one of the victims' cars and drove off, but surrendered to police at a Safeway grocery in the Oakland suburb of Alameda a short time later.