Oregon shooting: Reports of 10 dead at Umpqua Community College

  Preliminary information indicates 10 people were killed and more than 20 others injured in a shooting at Oregon's Umpqua Community College on Thursday, said Oregon State Police spokesman Bill Fugate.

Douglas County Commissioner Chris Boice told CNN that the shooter is in custody. It was not immediately clear whether the shooter was injured.

"We arrived to find multiple patients in multiple classrooms. Law enforcement was on scene and had the shooter neutralized," Douglas County Fire Marshal Ray Shoufler told CNN.

He said that two patients died while being transported to a hospital.

Hospital spokeswoman Kathleen Nickel said that six patients were transported to Mercy Medical Center in Roseburg, with four more reportedly on their way. The extent of their injuries was not clear.

ATF agents were also on scene and canine teams are en route to search for explosives, fire arms casings and ammunition, a spokesman said.

'This is so out of character'

Earlier, authorities had said they were responding to reports of an active shooter at the Roseburg college campus.

Roseburg is a city of about 22,000 people located about 70 miles south of Eugene, Oregon, and some 180 miles south of Portland.

The school itself is up on a hill outside the city center, according to Rick Francona, a CNN military analyst who lives nearby. Francona said that logging is a big industry in the region, which is fairly rural but easily accessible from Interstate 5.

"This is so out of character for this whole area," he said.

U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon expressed his condolences on Twitter.

The school

A picturesque campus in the North Umpqua River Valley, the school prides itself on a "a peaceful, safe atmosphere, and year-round recreational activities," according to its website.

It's not a traditional institution of higher learning, as the average age of its 13,600 students was 38 during the 2013-2014 school year. Only 740 of those were full time, 2,437 were part time and more than 10,000 fell under the umbrella of "community education."

It first began teaching classes out of rented facilities in 1961. Elton and Ruth Jackson donated 98.5 acres to house the campus in 1965.