Man who stabs 4 at California university is shot dead

A man who stabbed four people on the campus of a California university on Wednesday was later shot and killed by police, school officials said.

The University of California Merced tweeted that the campus had been locked down after the morning incident and that classes were canceled for the rest of Wednesday as well as Thursday. It had urged students to stay where they were during the incident.

Two stabbing victims were flown out by medical helicopter while the others were treated on campus, the school said. All of the victims -- two students, one staff member and a non-staff worker -- were expected to recover, it added.

See photos from the terrifying incident:

The school initially said the suspect had been apprehended, but campus police later said officers had shot and killed him. The school also initially said five people had been stabbed and that all were students. It later rescinded both statements.

John Price, head of a construction company that was remodeling part of the school building where the attack occurred, told the Merced Sun-Star newspaper that his son was working on the project when he was stabbed.

"They heard a scuffle in the classroom right across from where they were working and it sounded like a fight. So (my son) opened the door and the guy lunged at him," Price told the newspaper.

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The stabbing attack comes about a month after a gunman killed nine people at a community college in Oregon, ranking it among the deadliest of dozens of U.S. mass shootings over the past two years.

The city of Merced, where the newest addition to the University of California system is located, is some 135 miles southeast of San Francisco. The school has about 6,700 students, according to its website.

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