Police and students stand near the intersection of Woodruff and College on Ohio State's campus during an active shooter situation on Nov 28, 2016 in Columbus, Ohio. [Photo/IC]

Student from China reports fleeing chaos

A student from China witnessed the violent rampage on the Ohio State University campus on Monday in which 11 people were injured before the suspect was shot dead.

"The whole thing was really terrifying!" Cai Dawei posted on Chinese online messaging app WeChat.

Cai said the incident started when someone pulled a fire alarm in Watts Hall, "and then all the people were evacuated, waiting at the end of the 19th Street on campus".

"The fire department left after nothing was found in the building. About 20 or 30 seconds (after they left), a car rammed into a group of people; someone may have tipped the suspect off, since all the people who were in the building were waiting outside, including professors, a few of whom were too old to run," Cai said.

After plowing into pedestrians, witnesses said the suspect, Abdul Razak Ali Artan, got out of his vehicle and began stabbing people with a butcher knife before he was shot dead by police. Police said they are investigating whether it was a terrorist attack.

A US government official confirmed the assailant was from Somalia and a lawful permanent resident of the United States. A second government source said investigators believed Artan was a Somali refugee. Columbus, the state capital, has a large Somali population.

"The car knocked down many people … then the suspect chased after a wave of people," Cai said. "Luckily, I was running toward another direction. Then, I hid inside a house nearby. Then many ambulances came in to hospitalize the injured victims.

"Now I'm OK, but getting cold feet," he said. "I haven't told my family yet because I don't want them to be worried."