A man and a woman were shot to death in the University of Washington's architecture building Monday in an apparent murder-suicide, university police said.

Officers responding to reports of gunfire found the two and a handgun in an office on the fourth floor of Gould Hall in Seattle, assistant university police chief Ray Wittmier said.

People exit under tape placed by Seattle police at the scene where a man and a woman died of gunshot wounds Monday morning, inside the University of Washington's architecture building.
(Elaine Thompson/Associated Press)

The female victim, a 25-year-old university employee, had a restraining order against the man, who "almost certainly" shot her and took his own life, Wittmier said.

About six shots were fired, and the only people involved were the woman and the man, who was in his 40s, Wittmier said.

Lance Nguyen, a researcher at the Runstad Center for Real Estate Research, which has offices on the building's fourth floor, said he was a co-worker of the woman and that she had said she was worried about him.

The woman, a research specialist, changed her telephone number and e-mailed a photo of the man to friends, asking them to watch out for him, Nguyen said.

"She said it's a psycho from her past," Nguyen said.

Student Meghan Pinch, 27, was in a first-floor classroom when she heard several loud bangs. She said she did not think they were gunshots at first but then police told everyone to leave the building.

"No one wanted to really think it was real," Pinch said as she waited outside to learn whether the victims were people she knew.  

"We all are pretty close in this building," she said.

Gould hall houses three departmental offices, a dean's office, a library, shop, lab, computer facilities and classrooms, according to the university's website.

The building, in an urban neighbourhood on the edge of the campus, was closed for the day.