False Alarm Sent, No Armed Person On Montgomery College Campus

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD — Over 60,000 students and parents received an erroneous message alerting them of an armed person at a Maryland community college campus Wednesday afternoon.

Montgomery College sent the alert to students at all three of the college's campuses at 1:03 p.m., stating: "EMERGENCY! Armed person at [insert name] Campus. Go to nearest room and lock door NOW! If off campus, STAY AWAY. Follow instructions from authorities."

The college sent out an "all clear" message at 1:10 p.m., stating the alert was an error.

Montgomery College has campuses in Germantown, Rockville and Takoma Park. ABC 7 reports over 60,000 email addresses and 7,000 cell phone numbers received the alert.

“We’re learning right now from it,” Montgomery College spokesperson Marcus Rosano told ABC 7.

Twitter users were quick to respond and call out the college for the frightening error.

"So we get excused absences today, correct? Because you literally texted everyone implying there was a SHOOTER on campus so I didn’t go to school and am now chillin, so I’ll expect credit for class today," one person Tweeted at the college's account.

"My alert said Armed person at [insert name] Campus. Not only was it in error, it didn't even say where. I confirmed my kids were not at their campus, thank goodness. But this is not cool," another user said.

One student Tweeted to the school: "You should have seen the chaos and panic you caused the students and teachers. I better expect excused absence for everyone who left because of terror."

The false alarm follows a string of similar errors in the U.S., from the false Tsunami Warning across New England Tuesday morning to the incorrect ballistic missile threat sent to Hawaiians January 13.

>> This is a developing story. Patch will update this post as more information becomes available as to why the alert was sent.

Photo: Patch Graphic