A U.S. government source said investigators have reason to believe the attacker at the campus in Columbus was a Somali refugee. The city has a large Somali population.

Local officials declined to say what might have motivated the attack, and gave no details about the assailant, including his identity and whether he was a student at the university.

The attack at the Columbus campus, which was initially reported by the university on Twitter as involving an "active shooter," drew a massive response of heavily armed police.

Ohio State University police chief Craig Stone said there had been rumors of a second assailant, but police believe there was only one.

The suspect jumped the curb and used the vehicle to strike pedestrians in front of Watts Hall, Monica Moll, the university's director of public safety, said at a news conference. Local media reported the suspect used a sport utility vehicle.

He then left the vehicle armed with a butcher knife and stabbed several others, Stone told reporters.

An unidentified campus police officer who arrived at the scene shot and killed the suspect less than a minute after the attack began, Stone said.

"The only thing that you can say based upon common knowledge is that this was done on purpose,” Stone said. "To go over the curb and strike pedestrians and then to get out and start striking them with a knife, that was on purpose."

One person was critically injured, a Columbus Fire Department spokeswoman said. There were differing accounts on the total number injured. The fire department reported 10, while officials at a press conference said nine.

Five victims were taken to Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, said Dr. Andrew Thomas, the chief medical officer. They included two with stab wounds and two others who had injuries from being hit with the vehicle, Thomas said.

Two other hospitals received four patients, suffering from lacerations and injuries from being struck by the vehicle, Thomas said. None of the victims had life-threatening injuries, officials said.

CNN aired an image from a room at the university where students had barricaded a door with stacked chairs.

Columbus and university police continued their investigation with assistance from the FBI. The attack had prompted university officials to warn students on Twitter to shelter in place.

Ohio State said it had lifted the order shortly before noon EST, adding that the campus was secure.

The university campus remained open, although classes were canceled for the day.

President Barack Obama was briefed on the incident by Lisa Monaco, his homeland security adviser, said White House spokesman Josh Earnest.

"The Columbus City Council stands united with Ohio State University," said Council President Zach Klein. "We are continually thinking about and praying for all those involved and affected by this senseless act of violence.”

Ohio Governor John Kasich said in a statement that state residents "thoughts and prayers go out to the Ohio State community."</s>COLUMBUS: A Somali-born Ohio State University student plowed his car into a group of pedestrians on campus and then got out and began stabbing people with a butcher knife Monday before he was shot to death by an officer. Police said they are investigating whether it was a terrorist attack.</s>COLUMBUS (AP) — A Somali-born student who carried out a car-and-knife attack at Ohio State University stewed over the treatment of Muslims while apparently staying under the radar of federal law enforcement, underscoring the difficulty authorities face in identifying and stopping lone wolves bent on violence.

Abdul Razak Ali Artan was not known to FBI counterterrorism authorities before Monday’s rampage, which ended with him shot to death by police and 11 people injured, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press.

That’s in contrast to several other recent attacks, including those in New York City; Orlando, Florida; and Garland, Texas, in which those blamed for the violence had previously come to the attention of federal agents.

Law enforcement officials have not identified a motive for the Ohio State violence but have suggested terrorism as a possibility. FBI agents continued to search Artan’s apartment for clues, but California U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said he had seen no evidence Artan was directed by or was in communication with any overseas terror organization.

The mode of attack — plowing a car into civilians, then slashing victims with a butcher knife — was in keeping with the recommended tactics of jihadist propaganda. And Facebook posts that were apparently written shortly before the attack and came to light afterward show Artan nursed grievances against the U.S.

He railed against U.S. intervention in Muslim lands and warned, “If you want us Muslims to stop carrying lone wolf attacks, then make peace” with the Islamic State group.

“America! Stop interfering with other countries, especially the Muslim Ummah. We are not weak. We are not weak, remember that,” he wrote, using the Arabic term for the world’s Muslim community.

He also warned that other Muslims are in sleeper cells, “waiting for a signal. I am warning you Oh America!”

The posts were recounted by a law enforcement official who was briefed on the investigation but wasn’t authorized to discuss it publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

On Tuesday, a self-described Islamic State news agency called Artan “a soldier of the Islamic State” who “carried out the operation in response to calls to target citizens of international coalition countries.” The Islamic State group has described other attackers around the world as its “soldiers” without specifically claiming to have organized the acts of violence.

Artan’s social media rants seemed at odds with the portrait of the young man painted by neighbors and acquaintances.

Jack Ouham, owner of a market near the home on the outskirts of Columbus where Artan lived with his parents and siblings, saw him almost every day when he stopped in for snacks but never alcohol or cigarettes.

He was never angry, Ouham said.

Artan graduated with honors from Columbus State Community College last May, earning an associate of arts degree. A video of his graduation ceremony shows him jumping and spinning on stage and smiling broadly, drawing laughs, cheers and smiles from graduates and faculty members.

The school said he had no behavioral or disciplinary problems while he was there from the fall of 2014 until this past summer.

He started at Ohio State in August as a business student studying logistics management.

A law enforcement official said Artan came to the U.S. in 2014 as the child of a refugee. Artan had been living in Pakistan from 2007 to 2014. It’s not uncommon for refugees to go to a third-party country before being permanently resettled.

Federal and local authorities have been grappling with the pervasiveness of Islamic State group propaganda. FBI Director James Comey said in May that there were “north of 1,000” cases in which agents were trying to evaluate a subject’s level of radicalization and potential for violence.

Authorities will no doubt look to see if they missed any red flags that could have placed Artan under investigation.

Several acts of jihadist-inspired violence in the past two years have involved people known to the FBI.

The FBI investigated Omar Mateen, the gunman in the Orlando nightclub attack in June, for 10 months in 2013 after he boasted of mutual acquaintances with the Boston Marathon bombers and said things to co-workers that suggested he had radical, violent intentions. Agents found nothing to justify continued scrutiny and closed the matter but looked into him again the next year as part of a separate investigation into a suicide bomber who attended the same Florida mosque.

Federal authorities in 2014 looked into Ahmad Khan Rahimi after he was accused of stabbing a relative and his father expressed concerns he might be a terrorist. The FBI said it found nothing tying Rahimi to terrorism and closed its review. Rahimi was charged with setting off bombs in New York and New Jersey in September; he has pleaded not guilty.

FBI counterterrorism authorities have a “number of trip wires” set up to spot would-be jihadists and have a generally good sense of people who are drawn to terrorist propaganda, which is why many who have gone on to commit violence had come under scrutiny, said Seamus Hughes, deputy director of the George Washington University’s Program on Extremism.

“If you look at most quote-unquote successful terror attacks in the U.S. … they’ve always had some touch point with law enforcement and been on law enforcement’s radar in some point in their radical trajectory,” Hughes said.

Classes for the 60,000 students at Ohio State were canceled after the attack but resumed Tuesday. Several hundred students gathered on campus Tuesday night for a vigil intended to help in the healing process.

FILE - This August 2016 file photo provided by TheLantern.com shows Abdul Razak Ali Artan in Columbus, Ohio. Authorities identified Artan as the Somali-born Ohio State University student who plowed his car into a group of pedestrians on campus and then got out and began stabbing people with a knife Monday, Nov. 28, 2016, before he was shot to death by an officer. The attack employed methods Islamic State extremists have suggested in a slick new online magazine. It isn't clear whether Artan ever saw or heard about the magazine's instructions, but in a Facebook post made before the attack, he said that if the U.S. wanted Muslims to stop carrying out "lone wolf attacks," it should make peace with the Islamic State group. The posts were recounted by a law enforcement official who was briefed on the investigation but wasn't authorized to discuss it publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. (Kevin Stankiewicz/TheLantern.com via AP, File) FILE - This August 2016 file photo provided by TheLantern.com shows Abdul Razak Ali Artan in Columbus, Ohio. Authorities identified Artan as the Somali-born Ohio State University student who plowed his car into a group of pedestrians on campus and then got out and began stabbing people with a knife Monday, Nov. 28, 2016, before he was shot to death by an officer. The attack employed methods Islamic State extremists have suggested in a slick new online magazine. It isn't clear whether Artan ever saw or heard about the magazine's instructions, but in a Facebook post made before the attack, he said that if the U.S. wanted Muslims to stop carrying out "lone wolf attacks," it should make peace with the Islamic State group. The posts were recounted by a law enforcement official who was briefed on the investigation but wasn't authorized to discuss it publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. (Kevin Stankiewicz/TheLantern.com via AP, File) Ohio State University Professor William Clark wipes a tear from his eye during a news conference, Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2016, as he speaks of the police officer Alan Horujko who intervened during an attack at on campus the previous day in Columbus, Ohio. Investigators are looking into whether a car-and-knife attack at Ohio State University that injured several people was an act of terror by a student who had once criticized the media for its portrayal of Muslims. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) Ohio State University Professor William Clark wipes a tear from his eye during a news conference, Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2016, as he speaks of the police officer Alan Horujko who intervened during an attack at on campus the previous day in Columbus, Ohio. Investigators are looking into whether a car-and-knife attack at Ohio State University that injured several people was an act of terror by a student who had once criticized the media for its portrayal of Muslims. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) In this Monday file photo, crime scene investigators collect evidence from the pavement as police respond to an attack on campus at Ohio State University, in Columbus. In chillingly detailed articles in a slick online magazine, Islamic State extremists exhorted English-language readers this fall to carry out attacks with knives and vehicles. Using those very methods, Somali-born student Abdul Razak Ali Artan injured multiple people in the attack at Ohio State University, authorities say. It isn’t clear whether Artan ever saw or heard about the magazine’s instructions, but in a Facebook post made before the attack, he said that if the U.S. wanted Muslims to stop carrying out “lone wolf attacks,” it should make peace with the Islamic State group. The posts were recounted by a law enforcement official who was briefed on the investigation but wasn’t authorized to discuss it publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. In this Monday file photo, crime scene investigators collect evidence from the pavement as police respond to an attack on campus at Ohio State University, in Columbus. In chillingly detailed articles in a slick online magazine, Islamic State extremists exhorted English-language readers this fall to carry out attacks with knives and vehicles. Using those very methods, Somali-born student Abdul Razak Ali Artan injured multiple people in the attack at Ohio State University, authorities say. It isn’t clear whether Artan ever saw or heard about the magazine’s instructions, but in a Facebook post made before the attack, he said that if the U.S. wanted Muslims to stop carrying out “lone wolf attacks,” it should make peace with the Islamic State group. The posts were recounted by a law enforcement official who was briefed on the investigation but wasn’t authorized to discuss it publicly and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.

Tucker and Abdollah reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Alicia A. Caldwell in Washington; Dan Sewell in Cincinnati; John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio; Collin Binkley in Boston; and Mark Gillispie in Cleveland contributed to this story, along with AP Dubai correspondent Jon Gambrell.</s>This August 2016 image provided by TheLantern.com shows Abdul Razak Ali Artan in Columbus, Ohio. Authorities identified Abdul Razak Ali Artan as the Somali-born Ohio State University student who plowed his car into a group of pedestrians on campus and then got out and began stabbing people with a knife Monday before he was shot to death by an officer. (Kevin Stankiewicz/TheLantern.com via AP)</s>At least nine people were injured at Ohio State University in an attack that was carried out by two assailants at the Columbus campus on Monday, according to local officials and media.

Local media reported that the injured were both shot and stabbed.

The nine victims were taken to local hospitals, a spokeswoman with the Columbus Fire Department said. One person was in critical condition, and the others were stable. The nature of their injuries was not immediately known.

A suspected attacker was shot, local television station WBNS reported, citing law enforcement sources. WBNS said four of the injured suffered gunshot wounds.

WBNS, citing law enforcement, reported the attack began with a person armed with a gun and another individual with a knife got out of a sport utility vehicle at a university engineering building. At least some victims were stabbed, the station reported.

Columbus police said on Twitter they were assisting university law enforcement. Representatives for the university did not immediately return calls.

"Ohio's thoughts and prayers go out to the Ohio State community," Ohio Governor John Kasich said in a statement. "Be safe, listen to first responders."

Ohio State student Wyatt Crosher told CNN he heard what sounded like gunfire and then emergency sirens.</s>This August 2016 image provided by TheLantern.com shows Abdul Razak Ali Artan in Columbus, Ohio. Authorities identified Abdul Razak Ali Artan as the Somali-born Ohio State University student who plowed his car into a group of pedestrians on campus and then got out and began stabbing people with a knife Monday before he was shot to death by an officer. (Kevin Stankiewicz/TheLantern.com via AP)</s>Seven people were sent to the hospital Monday morning after an active shooter was reported on campus. About 90 minutes later, the situation was said to be secure, but classes were canceled for the day.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Seven people were sent to the hospital Monday morning after an active shooter was reported on campus, the Columbus Fire Department said shortly after the school sent a series of tweets telling students to shelter in place and to “Run Hide Fight.”

Two of those people were in stable condition, the department said. It had no information on the other five people.

It was not clear how the seven had been hurt.

Cassidie Baker, an Ohio State senior, said she saw police or paramedics helping one person on the ground outside Watts Hall.

“No one really knows what is happening, other than there’s an active shooter,” she said.

Ohio State said about an hour and a half after its initial tweets about an active shooter that a shelter-in-place warning had been lifted and the scene was secure. The university tweeted that all classes would be canceled for the rest of the day.

Around 10 a.m., the university’s emergency management department tweeted “Buckeye Alert: Active Shooter on campus. Run Hide Fight. Watts Hall. 19th and College.” Watts Hall is a materials science and engineering building.

“Run, hide, fight” is standard protocol for active shooter situations. It means: Run, evacuate if possible; hide, get silently out of view; or fight, as a last resort, take action to disrupt or incapacitate the shooter if your life is in imminent danger.

The university followed up with another tweet: “Continue to shelter in place in north campus area. Follow directions of Police on scene.” The university asked for anyone with information to call police.

Many police vehicles were at the scene. No other information was immediately available.

With nearly 60,000 students at its main Columbus campus, Ohio State is one of the nation’s largest universities.

This story has been corrected to show that the fire department said seven people have been sent to the hospital after a report of an active shooter at Ohio State University, not that it said seven people have been sent to the hospital after a shooting at Ohio State University.</s>COLUMBUS: A Somali-born Ohio State University student plowed his car into a group of pedestrians on campus and then got out and began stabbing people with a butcher knife Monday before he was shot to death by an officer. Police said they are investigating whether it was a terrorist attack.</s>Ohio State University (OSU) has said the “shelter-in-place” warning is now lifted and that the scene is secure after an active shooter report.

Eight people have been taken to hospital and while two are reported stable, one is described as being in critical condition, the fire department has said.

Ohio State University had told students that there was an active shooter on campus, and that they should “run, hide, fight”.

Heavily armed Swat teams could be seen making their way up a stairwell of a parking garage.

OSU Student Cydney Ireland, spoke to ABC6 from a bathroom in which she said she was hiding on campus. “The first thing I heard were screams,” she said, then a whistle, followed by at least three gunshots that “sounded like a handgun”.

Ohio State’s official Twitter page retweeted a post from OSU Emergency Management saying there was an active shooter on campus in Columbus.

The tweet said: “Buckeye Alert: Active Shooter on campus. Run Hide Fight. Watts Hall. 19th and College.”

“Run. Hide. Fight” is standard protocol for active shooter situations. It means: Run, evacuate if possible; Hide, get silently out of view; or Fight, as a last resort, take action to disrupt or incapacitate the shooter if your life is in imminent danger.

A Columbus police dispatcher declined to comment on the reports, but police vehicles are at the scene.

With nearly 60,000 students at its main Columbus campus, Ohio State is one of the nation’s largest universities.

Ohio Governor John Kasich said he was praying for people on campus, whom he encouraged to “be safe” and “listen to first responders”. Mr Kasich also postponed a public appearance planned for Monday afternoon</s>(CNN) Authorities believe the Ohio State University student responsible for Monday's attack on campus was inspired by terrorist propaganda from ISIS and deceased Yemeni-American cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, two law enforcement sources said.

The sources point to Abdul Razak Ali Artan 's Facebook posts before his short-lived rampage on the Columbus campus. The posts referenced Awlaki, who was a leader of al Qaeda in Yemen. Sources also notethe style of the attack was encouraged by ISIS in a recent online magazine.

Despite claims from the Islamic State's purported media wing that Artan was an ISIS soldier, there is no indication so far that Artan communicated with any terror group; evidence points to a lone wolf attack. Investigators are inspecting his computer and cell phone and talking to family and associates, as they try to determine what led him to act.

Artan bought knives on the day of the attack, a law enforcement official said.Artan rammed his car into a group of people on the Columbus campus and then got out and charged at passersby with a knife. Ohio State University Police Officer Alan Horujko shot Artan after he failed to obey orders to stop, killing him and stopping the attack.

Of the 11 people injured three remain hospitalized, Dr. Andrew Thomas said at a news conference Tuesday. Thomas is chief medical officer of the OSU Wexner Medical Center.

Authorities investigate the scene of the attack, where the assailant struck people with his vehicle and then cut them with a butcher knife.

Over almost as soon as it began

Classes resumed Tuesday as the campus community comes to grips with the incident.

One of the victims released Tuesday, Professor Emeritus William Clark, described the rapid escalation of events, which lasted less than two minutes from the moment when Artan drove up on the curb until he was shot.

Watts Hall had just been evacuated for a fire alarm before Artan drove up and crashed his car into a cement planter, accounting for the large group of people outside, Clark said.

As Artan's car was stopping it clipped the back of Clark's leg, sending him into the air before he landed on his back. He suffered deep cuts and bruises on his leg.

It all happened so fast that Clark said he barely noticed Artan. He declined to speculate on what motivated Artan without knowing him personally or the facts at hand.

"I'm only too aware of the things that drive students to do things they wouldn't normally do," he said.

"At the end of the day I'm sore and going home this afternoon and he's dead," he continued. "My sense, out of respect for the living and the dead, is we should wait to find out what the truth is."

Facebook posts yield clues

Artan left his native Somalia with his family in 2007. They arrived in the United States from Pakistan in 2014 as legal permanent residents and green card holders.

Abdul Razak Ali Artan

Artan had just transferred from Columbus State this semester. In August, Ohio State's student-run newspaper profiled Artan as part of its "Humans of Ohio State" series, in which he talked about his struggles to find a place to pray in peace on the large campus.

"I wanted to pray in the open, but I was scared with everything going on in the media," he told the newspaper.

Louann Carnahan, who lived next door to Artan, said she knew him and his family quite well and spoke to them every day. She described him as being very pleasant.

"I never expected any kind of behavior like that from him," she said. "I'm still beside myself that he was even capable of the acts that he did."

There were no visible changes in his behavior in the days leading up to the attack, she said.

In a Facebook post shortly before the rampage, the Somali immigrant said he was "sick and tired" of seeing fellow Muslims "killed and tortured," according to federal law enforcement officials.

He urged America "to stop interfering with other countries, especially the Muslim Ummah," a term for Muslim people at large.

"By Allah, we will not let you sleep unless you give peace to the Muslims," he wrote. "You will not celebrate or enjoy any holiday."

Artan said reports of human rights abuses in Myanmar pushed him to a "boiling point." The United States, which suspended its last sanctions against the former military dictatorship this year, said it had expressed concerns about the treatment of Myanmar's Rohingya Muslims.

"I can't take it anymore," he said in the post.

Three calls, three shots, one dead

Officer Horujko's quick response cut Artan's rampage short, officials said.

Horujko called in the car at 9:52 a.m. A few seconds later, he called again to say he had engaged with the suspect. At 9:53 a.m., he called a third time to say he had shot the suspect.

CNN Map

Student Logan Chapman, who was nearby at the time, said everyone thought it was an accident.

"So everyone was checking to make sure that the people who were hit were OK," he told CNN's "New Day." "As soon as everything had settled down, he got out of the car and started slashing people closest to the car with the knife."

Cops putting up tape, wearing vests and grabbing their guns pic.twitter.com/dVmztKBeq6 — Anthony Falzarano (@_falzarano) November 28, 2016

Investigators used surveillance camera footage to track Artan's car before he arrived on campus, University Police Chief Craig Stone said. By tracing his movements, investigators were able to conclude he was alone in the vehicle and acted alone.

Gov. John Kasich praised the response, saying it showed "how much practice, how much training, how much expertise, how much coordination" existed among local law enforcement agencies.

"We are a strong, tough, resilient community," he said.

'Run, hide, fight'

Ohio State President Dr. Michael V. Drake and others credited the school's active shooter training and the campus alert system for helping the community maintain order while the scene was secured. Ohio State's Columbus campus is one of the largest in the United States. Nearly 60,000 registered students attend classes on the sprawling urban campus.

At 9:55 a.m., three minutes after Horujko's first call, the school sent out a campus alert reporting an active shooter incident.

"Buckeye Alert: Active Shooter on campus. Run Hide Fight . Watts Hall. 19th and College," Ohio State Emergency Management tweeted at 9:56 a.m.

Buckeye Alert: Active Shooter on campus. Run Hide Fight. Watts Hall. 19th and College. — OSU Emergency Mngmnt (@OSU_EMFP) November 28, 2016

Some students piled chairs against a door to block him from getting in as they awaited word on the attacker's movements.

Ohio State University senior Mackenzie Bart and four other female students barricaded themselves into a room in the Derby Hall building on campus during the attack.

Students had just returned to class Monday after Thanksgiving break -- and after the Ohio State football team's big win Saturday over the school's biggest rival, the University of Michigan.

Stay safe, Buckeyes. — Michigan Athletics (@UMichAthletics) November 28, 2016

In a news conference Monday, Drake cautioned against jumping to conclusions when asked if the incident was terror-related or had anything to do with Ohio's Somali community, the second-largest in the country.

"What we want to do is really unify together and support each other; do our best to support those who were injured in their recovery, and then allow the investigation to take place."
Law enforcement officials believed Abdul Razak Ali Artan, the perpetrator of a car ramming and stabbing attack at Ohio State University (OSU)'s Watts Hall, was inspired by terrorist propaganda from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and radical Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.