One dead as burning car rams gate at Okla. weather center

One person died Thursday when a car caught fire after crashing through a gate at the National Weather Center on the University of Oklahoma campus, according to news reports.

The crash was a suspected suicide, university spokesperson Corbin Wallace said in a statement, the student newspaper, The Oklahoma Daily, reported. The driver, who appeared to be a man, has not been identified.

Firefighters were called shortly before 3:20 p.m. CT, said Norman Fire Department Chief Jim Bailey.

Photos posted to Twitter showed the burning sedan in a parking lot next to the brick building housing the National Weather Service Norman Forecast Office, the NWS Storm Prediction Center, the National Severe Storms Laboratory and other offices.

The car looked to be full of smoke before it smashed through the east gate and caught fire, The Norman Transcriptreported, citing police scanner communications. A bomb squad examined the vehicle, which came to rest near a loading dock, after firefighters extinguished the flames.