Five people have been injured – none critically – after a shooting interrupted a homecoming week celebration at Morgan State University in the US city of Baltimore.

The incident prompted a lockdown at the historically black college in Maryland, with students told to shelter in place for about four hours as police went room-to-room looking for suspects.

Police Commissioner Richard Worley said the five victims, four males and one female, were between the ages of 18 and 22. Their injuries were not life-threatening, he told reporters at a news conference.

Morgan State police chief Lance Hatcher said four of the victims are students at the university. No arrests were announced and police did not release information about any suspect or suspects.

The shooting happened shortly after an event to crown Mister & Miss Morgan State at the Murphy Fine Arts Centre, as students were heading to a coronation ball.

Konnor Crowder, a student from Baltimore, said he and his friends had been waiting for the ball to start when they saw people running across the campus.

“First I was wondering what they were running for, then I was wondering where we should go,” he said.

City council member Ryan Dorsey said earlier on X that “it’s believed there were three shooters firing into the crowd”.

Mr Worley said at the news conference that investigators did not know how many shooters were involved.

Morgan State University president David Wilson said he attended the coronation ceremony, an annual ritual that takes place in the run-up to the school gridiron team’s homecoming game on Saturday.

“It is unfortunate that this tragedy happened here tonight,” he said. “By no means will it define who we are as a university.”

The university, which has about 9,000 students, was founded in 1867 as the Centenary Biblical Institute with an initial mission of training men for ministry, according to its website.

It moved to its current site in north-east Baltimore in 1917, and was purchased by the state of Maryland in 1939 as it aimed to provide more opportunities for black citizens.

Baltimore mayor Brandon Scott noted recent declines in the city’s homicide rate and said the shooting Tuesday indicates a need for national gun reform.

“We have to deal with this issue nationally,” he said. “We have to get serious about guns.”

Classes at the university were cancelled on Wednesday.