TIMELINE: Major shootings at schools and universities

(Reuters) - Five people were killed when a man opened fire in a classroom at Northern Illinois University near Chicago on Thursday, including the gunman who killed himself, CNN reported.

Here are some major shootings inside schools and universities around the world in recent years:

March 1996 - BRITAIN - A gunman bursts into a primary school in Dunblane in Scotland and shoots dead 16 children and their teacher before killing himself.

March 1997 - YEMEN - A man with an assault rifle attacks hundreds of pupils at two schools in Sanaa, killing six children and two others. He is sentenced to death the next day.

March 1998 - USA - At Westside Middle School in Jonesboro, Arkansas, two boys aged 13 and 11 set off the fire alarm and kill four students and a teacher as they leave the school.

May 1998 - USA - In Springfield, Oregon, a student opens fire in Thurston High School, killing two students and injuring 22. The boy's parents are later found slain in their home.

April 1999 - USA - Two student gunmen kill 12 other students and a teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, before killing themselves.

January 2002 - USA - A student who had been dismissed from the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, Virginia, kills the dean, a professor and a student, and wounds three others.

February 2002 - GERMANY - In Freising, Bavaria, a former student thrown out of trade school shoots three people before killing himself. Another teacher is injured.