NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. — A social media-sourced report that a clown was in a residence hall with a weapon sent an eastern Massachusetts college into lockdown Monday night. The incident joins a rash of clown sighting pranks — some leading to arrests — across the nation.

Merrimack College students received a text message from the school’s alert system shortly after 9:30 p.m. telling them to shelter in place and that the residence hall had been evacuated. The message said a “suspicious person dressed as a clown may be armed.”

“All of a sudden they said we’re on lockdown you have to get away from the windows. Everyone pushed to the middle and we just kind of had to wait until they sent out the text, email and phone call all at the same time that said we were good,” said Cole Ruley, 21.

Merrimack College students were evacuated from Monican Centre, a three-story residence hall located near the center of campus, while the rest of the campus was told to take shelter in place.

“It was kind of weird in there, everyone there on the first floor just huddled together,” Ruley, who was in the library during the evacuation and lockdown, added.

The scare comes amid a series of peculiar and creepy sightings, encounters and social media jibes involving clowns that have raised concerns among citizens and authorities across the United States since two initial sightings in North Carolina and South Carolina last month gained national media attention. 

The report turned out to be a Twitter hoax.

The tweet, making mention of a clown with a rifle in a building on campus, came from a Twitter account with the name Clown Watch and the handle @BestClownWatch, said Jim Chiavelli, vice president of communications for Merrimack College.

CS:
North Andover, MA
Merrimack College third floor monican building. Clown holding rifle.

— Clown Watch (@BestClownWatch) October 4, 2016

Freshman Matt Miller, 18, said he had seen the tweet on Twitter before receiving the alert from the college. He said he and his friends had been talking earlier on Monday about the other clown incidents that have been reported in other parts of the country in recent days.

“We were literally watching videos today on Facebook and Twitter and it happens today. It’s kind of weird,” he said.

A staff member saw the tweet and alerted campus police, who responded “appropriately,” Chiavelli said to press Monday night.

“There was no weapon found in Monican Centre,” Chiavelli said. “No weapon, no suspicious person.”

Chiavelli said Merrimack College would be following up with Twitter about the account that tweeted out the hoax about Monican Centre. The account had also tweeted about alleged clown sightings at other schools and locations throughout Massachusetts and beyond Monday night.

“We’re going to be reaching out to Twitter and asking them to do something about this,” Chiavelli said. “It’s just irresponsible. It’s a fire alarm on social media.”

Kashinsky and Tennant write for the North Andover, Massachusetts Eagle-Tribune.