Classes were canceled as state police launched an investigation into the shooting, which happened in a student housing complex.

Classes were canceled at South Carolina State University on Friday after a shooting overnight in a student housing complex that left two men dead and a third wounded.

The campus, which is located in the city of Orangeburg, went into lockdown a little after 9 p.m. Thursday after gunfire erupted, according to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED).

The lockdown was lifted around 5 a.m. Friday.

"The incident happened inside a room in the Hugine Suites housing complex," SLED said in a statement obtained by NBC affiliate WYFF of Greenville. "Three men were shot."

One of the shooting victims died at the scene, another died at a nearby hospital, SLED said.

SLED did not give a condition for the wounded man or say where he was being treated. Nor has the agency released a motive.

The dead victims were taken to the Orangeburg County Coroner`s Office, SLED said.

When asked if any of the victims were students, Sam Watson, the school`s director of university relations, said they expect to have an update later Friday.

This was the second deadly shooting at South Carolina State this academic year. In October, one person was killed and two others were injured in two unrelated shootings during the homecoming weekend celebration.

None of those victims were students, the university said at the time.

The historically Black university is located about 40 miles south of the state capital, Columbia.