Police investigate shooting on subway platform that led to Harvard students sheltering in place

Transit police in Boston were investigating a shooting in the Harvard Square MBTA station on Sunday that prompted the school to issue a shelter-in-place order for students and staff.

Authorities temporarily rerouted passengers on part of the T's system to shuttle buses as officers from various departments searched for a suspect.

Richard Sullivan, superintendent of the MBTA Police Department, said in an email that a man armed with a gun fired four to five rounds at a “targeted individual” on the southbound platform at the Harvard Square station, according to a preliminary investigation. The suspect then fled the station.

There is no evidence the targeted person or anyone else was injured, he said.

Police were alerted to a report of shots fired around 2:15 p.m. A message was later sent to the Harvard community, urging people to shelter in the nearest building until further notice and that police were searching the area around the busy station, which is near the school's main campus in Cambridge.

The message, which was posted on Harvard's website, was removed later Sunday afternoon.