Bishop could face the death penalty if convicted of murder, reports said

A biology professor denied a job promotion has been charged with murder after a shooting at a southern US university left three people dead.

Amy Bishop was apprehended outside a science building at the University of Alabama in Huntsville campus after opening fire at a faculty meeting.

She could face the death penalty if convicted, officials said. Reports said her husband was also being questioned.

US educational sites have seen numerous fatal shooting attacks in recent years.

The most serious occurred at Virginia Tech University in 2007, when a student killed 32 people before turning the gun on himself.

Harvard-educated

Local media reports in Huntsville say the shooting happened after Prof Bishop found out she had been denied academic tenure, which guarantees job security.

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University spokesman Ray Garner said the three killed were the head of department and two other professors. No students were harmed in the incident.

Two of the three injured, also biology department members, are said to be in a critical condition in hospital. The third was reportedly in a "fair" condition.

The Huntsville campus in northern Alabama has about 7,500 students.

Prof Bishop is a neurobiologist who studied at Harvard University. She had joined the biology faculty as an assistant professor in 2003.