One person has been killed and 16 others were injured in a shooting at a US university.

Homecoming week at Tuskegee University, in Alabama, was marred early on Sunday by the attack on campus.

An 18-year-old man died in the assault. He was not a university student, but some of the injured were.

Of the 16 wounded, 12 were hurt by gunfire, authorities said.

“The parents of this individual [killed] have been notified. Several others including Tuskegee University students were injured and are receiving treatment at East Alabama Medical Center in Opelika and Baptist South Hospital in Montgomery,” the university said in a statement.

A 25-year-old man, who was found with a weapon while leaving the scene of the shooting, has been arrested and charged with a federal offence.

The FBI has also joined the investigation.

The injured included a female student who was shot in the stomach and a male student who was hit in the arm, the city’s police chief Patrick Mardis said.

Alabama Law Enforcement Agency’s State Bureau of Investigation said its agents were notified about multiple people shot around 1.40am and that it was still gathering information.

Police were responding to an unrelated double shooting off campus when the force got the call about the incident at the university, Mr Mardis added.

The shooting happened as the historically black university’s 100th homecoming week was winding down.

All classes on Monday have been cancelled.

Amare Hardee, who is president of the student government association at the university, said: “This senseless act of violence has touched each of us, whether directly or indirectly.”