PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Pennsylvania State Police are investigating a series of phone calls made to several schools across the state Wednesday morning for threats of "active shooters,” all of which so far have been determined to be hoaxes.
The threats prompted lockdowns and evacuations of schools from the Lehigh Valley to the State College Area to Pittsburgh, with a large response from local police and emergency services.
The hoaxes caused considerable chaos in Allegheny County, where Central and Oakland Catholic High Schools were placed on lockdown.
KYW Newsradio sister station KDKA reported parents driving up to the school, getting out of their vehicles and running up the stairs to the entrance, left in tears after finding out it was a hoax.
Reports of an active shooter at Hopewell, Chalfont, Laurel Highlands, New Castle and more are also reported to be a hoax locally. Those calls caused lockdowns at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University.
Allegheny County released a statement Wednesday afternoon affirming the belief that "these are false reports."
Pennsylvania State Police also issued a statement Wednesday afternoon claiming that they were made aware of several calls to schools, all stating similar threats, and responded to all incidents in the primary coverage areas.
State police were also in contact with municipal law enforcement partners to investigate the incidents.
"At this time, all claims in these calls have been determined to be false. All schools involved have been cleared or are in the process of being cleared by law enforcement.The investigation is ongoing" state police said.
Authorities believe the calls are "computer-generated swatting calls"
This comes just a couple days after a mass shooting in Nashville, TN killed three children and three adults.
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