UPDATED 2:20pm: The gunman who has killed ten people in a shooting spree at a US college has been identified.

He was 26-year-old Chris Harper Mercer.

LISTEN: Fire Marshall Ray Schoufler describes the scene.

At least 13 people people are dead and many more wounded after a gunman opened fire at Umpqua Community College in Oregon.

The gunman at the centre of the latest mass shooting in the United States is dead.

First responders are still counting the bodies at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg - a rural area in Oregon.

David Jaques, a reporter with the The Roseburg Beacon, is on the scene.

Jaques said there are 13 confirmed dead.

A New Zealander has been left distraught, but uninjured, after the shooting.

20 year old Jaylen Gerrand had arrived in the US only a couple of weeks ago, on a basketball scholarship.

His New Zealand coach Jeff Green said he spoke to the former Westlake Boys High School student over the phone, as he waited at a trauma centre set up on campus.

He said Mr Gerrand is really distraught - as he was running away from the gunman he saw a person right next to him shot, and killed.

The basketball player also saw three others killed.

He said Mr Gerrand has been interviewed by police and now just wants to come home to New Zealand.

Military analyst Colonel Rick Francona has been speaking with CNN.

"This is a close knit community and I'm sure that this is totally out of character for anything that you would have thought would happen in Roseburg, Oregon."

President Barack Obama has spoken about the shooting - the 15th time he's spoken about a mass shooting since taking office.

He said such shootings have become so routine, Americans are numb to it.

"It cannot be this easy for somebody who wants to inflict harm on other people, to get his or her hands on a gun"