A university student accused of killing his parents at Central Michigan University (CMU) in the US has been arrested, campus officials said.

James Eric Davis Jr, 19, allegedly killed the couple in a residence hall on Friday morning when they came to pick him up for a week-long spring break.

The suspect fled after the shooting and was seen on a train passing through the end of campus after midnight, local media reported. He was later arrested without incident, officials said.

Officials said they believed the shooting "started from a domestic situation".

In a news conference on Friday, campus police spokesman Larry Klaus told reporters the suspect was known to police, as they took him to a hospital the night before the incident for a "drug-related type of incident - an overdose or a bad reaction to drugs".

There were no other casualties reported in the incident.

It is unclear how the teenager acquired the weapon.

Spate of shootings

The attack at CMU is the latest in a recent spate of school shootings across the US.

On Thursday, 13-year-old Keith Simons reportedly walked out of the toilet at his Ohio middle school with a semi-automatic weapon, intent on committing a mass shooting.

Instead, Simons went back into the toilet and committed suicide, police said.

A shooting at Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14 killed 17, mostly students. The massacre prompted a renewed debate on gun control regulations in the US.

President Donald Trump, a member of the Republican party that is typically against gun control measures, turned heads on Thursday by ridiculing legislators for their lack of action on mass shootings.

CMU police confirm two individuals were fatally shot at Campbell Hall on campus this morning. The deceased are not students and police believe the situation started from a domestic situation. There are no additional injuries; suspect is still at large: https://t.co/AxvPn3N0s0 — Central Michigan U. (@CMUniversity) March 2, 2018

Trump suggested he will confront the NRA, the nation's largest firearms lobby.

"We have to stop this nonsense," the president said.