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ALBUQUERQUE: One person is dead and another wounded following a shooting early Friday at a dormitory complex at the University of New Mexico, prompting a campus-wide search for the suspect.

The campus was closed and yellow tape cordoned off a student housing area as authorities conducted a sweep for the suspect.

A shelter-in-place order remained in effect at midday and few people were seen on campus by an Associated Press reporter, hours after the university posted an alert announcing that a shooting had taken place just before 3:30 a.m.

Campus police arrived at the Casas del Rio housing center to find two people with gunshot wounds — one dead and the other with non-life-threatening injuries.

Another alert asking people to shelter in place was sent out on social media just after 6 a.m. “Multiple law enforcement agencies are on scene and actively investigating,” the university said.

Mikey Beck, who was staying in student housing this week as part of new student orientation at the university, said he heard gunshots overnight and saw what appeared to be an injured person hiding in some bushes. Two other people jumped out of a dorm window and ran, he said.

Beck said he was excited to start his freshman year but the incident was disconcerting.

“It’s really sketchy out here. Just being in Albuquerque is really scary,” he said.

Not far from the dorms, a line of university buses waited for students to board, many of them carrying backpacks and pulling small luggage carts with their belongings. The university was conducting a “staged, tactical evacuation,” a spokesperson said in an emailed statement. People on campus were told not to move without direction from campus police, said the statement from university spokesperson Cinnamon Blair.

Details on the two victims were not released, nor was any description of the suspect. Casas del Rio is a four-building complex with furnished suite apartments that combined have more than 1,000 beds, according to the Lobo Development Corp.

The university in central Albuquerque has about 23,000 students during the school year. New students like Beck have been visiting as part of weekly scheduled orientations ahead of the fall semester, which begins in about three weeks.

New Mexico’s largest city has struggled with violent crime in recent years, particularly among juveniles. District Attorney Sam Bregman, who is running for the Democratic nomination for governor, has called for state lawmakers to do more to address what describes as a crisis.

The plea for legislative action comes amid violence in New Mexico involving young suspects, including a fatal hit-and-run in Albuquerque and a shooting in Las Cruces in March that killed three and wounded 15 others.

Prosecutors, law enforcement and Republican lawmakers have pressed Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to convene a special legislative session to address the state’s crime problem. Despite voicing her disappointment with the Democratic-controlled Legislature at the end of the last session, the governor has not given recent indications that she will be calling lawmakers back to Santa Fe.

LONDON: UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has condemned Israel with his strongest comments yet, as pressure mounts within and outside the government for Britain to formally recognize a Palestinian state.

Starmer’s remarks came after French President Emmanuel Macron said his country would recognize a Palestinian state, and as the two leaders, along with Germany’s Friedrich Merz, were set to hold an emergency call on the issue.

“The suffering and starvation unfolding in Gaza is unspeakable and indefensible. While the situation has been grave for some time, it has reached new depths and continues to worsen. We are witnessing a humanitarian catastrophe,” the UK prime minister said.

For the first time with reference to Israel, his statement failed to mention the country’s right to defend itself, or the hostages held by Hamas and other militant groups.

Starmer “appeared to have lost his patience with Benjamin Netanyahu’s Israeli government,” The Independent said, adding that the PM “appeared to be on the cusp of being prepared to recognize a Palestinian state.”

The political movement among major European countries is taking place as Israel faces mounting global anger over its actions in Gaza.

Starvation in the enclave has reportedly surged in recent weeks, with at least 113 hunger-related deaths being recorded, including 82 children, according to Palestinian health officials.

The Israeli military has also killed scores of Palestinians queuing for food at designated aid sites operated by the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, a US charity backed by Israel that is attempting to supersede Gaza’s existing UN-operated aid system.

Starmer added in his statement: “I will hold an emergency call with E3 partners tomorrow, where we will discuss what we can do urgently to stop the killing and get people the food they (Palestinians) desperately need while pulling together all the steps necessary to build a lasting peace.

“We all agree on the pressing need for Israel to change course and allow the aid that is desperately needed to enter Gaza without delay.”

Starmer has faced significant pressure this week from within his own Labour Party, including Cabinet ministers, as well as from trade unions and academics, to recognize a Palestinian state.

He added: “We are clear that statehood is the inalienable right of the Palestinian people. A ceasefire will put us on a path to the recognition of a Palestinian state and a two-state solution which guarantees peace and security for Palestinians and Israelis.”

Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said yesterday that recognition would lead to “multiple benefits” and send a “strong message” to the Netanyahu government.

She is one of several government ministers who have privately urged Starmer to recognize a Palestinian state in recent months.

The issue has also been raised at regular Cabinet meetings.

Mahmood, the most senior Muslim politician in the UK, told The Times that though pushing for a ceasefire in Gaza was “the most urgent thing of all,” Palestinian statehood represented the “best mechanism to get us through a peace process.”

In its manifesto for last year’s general election, the ruling Labour Party pledged to recognize Palestine once in office.

Labour’s Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, also urged the government to follow France’s lead.

He warned that there could be no two-state solution — a longtime policy target of British governments — if “there is no viable state left to call Palestine.”

Another Labour politician, Emily Thornberrry, chair of the foreign affairs select committee, also urged Starmer to act.

The UK’s actions in relation to the Israel-Palestine conflict have “time and time again … come too little, too late,” she wrote in an opinion piece for The Independent on Friday.

Thornberry highlighted the potential of the major joint Saudi-French conference on the two-state solution, set to begin in New York next week.

After addressing Parliament on a visit to London last week, Macron met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday, delivering a letter that said he would formally recognize Palestine at the UN General Assembly in September.

The French president was “right” to do so, Thornberry said.

“A unified move by the signatories to the secret Sykes-Picot agreement which carved up the Middle East more than a century ago would demonstrate our sincere commitment to a two-state solution,” she added.

“The natural reaction of the British public to the scenes of starvation and death in Gaza is to call on their politicians to do something. The challenge for politicians is to ensure that what they do makes a real difference.

“The recognition of Palestine as part of a renewed commitment by the UK to work with others to build a peace process would be just that.”