Maine colleges on lockdown with active shooter at large

Several colleges in and around Lewiston, Me., are closed today because of the continuing threat of an active shooter who killed numerous people in the area Wednesday night.

Bates College, which is located directly in Lewiston, went into lockdown Wednesday morning and remains closed today. “We know this is extraordinarily difficult, particularly for those students who have not been able to return to their residence halls,” Geoffrey Swift, the college’s vice president for finance and administration, said in a website message today. “The City of Lewiston and the Lewiston Police Department have authorized us to shuttle students sheltering in place in academic and administrative buildings to their residence halls on campus.”

Central Maine Community College, the Maine College of Health Professions and the University of Southern Maine’s Lewiston-Auburn campus are also closed today, and classes are canceled at Southern Maine’s primary campuses in Portland.

There were conflicting reports this morning on exactly how many people the shooter had killed, ranging from seven to more than 20.