A vague threat apparently posted by an Australian on two social networking sites led to the lockdown of all schools in the busy midwestern US city of Minneapolis, officials said.
City officials received a phone call early on Wednesday alerting them that a young man planned to "shoot up" an unspecified school and then kill himself, police said.
Officials decided to place all schools on a "code yellow" lockdown as a precautionary measure while investigating the validity of the threat.
The lockdown, which affected about 34,000 students at 60 schools in the Minneapolis public school system, meant children were kept in their classrooms while outside visitors were strictly limited.
"We took this very seriously," Minneapolis police spokesman Jesse Garcia told reporters.
"We err on the side of caution," added Minneapolis Public Schools spokesman Stan Alleyne.
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182 days ago