ILLINOIS — Police agencies in at least a dozen communities around the area and across the state started receiving calls around 8:30 Wednesday morning reporting an active shooter in one of their schools.

Law enforcement and other emergency responders quickly descended upon the schools, and after clearing the buildings found neither a shooter nor students injured.

In our listening area, Centralia High School, Salem High School, and Mt. Vernon High School all received a call from what has been reported as an “adult male”, or an “adult male with a foreign accent.

Mt. Vernon Police Chief Trent Page says the caller gave inaccurate information about the schools, such as room numbers that don’t exist in the buildings.

Chief Page says schools in Marion and Carbondale also received the “swatting” calls at about the same time, as did schools in the Metro East such as Granite City, and schools up north in Dixon and Stephenson County. “Swatting is an action or practice of making a prank call to emergency services in an attempt to have a large number of armed police officers respond to a particular address.

According to Page, all available MVPD officers, Jefferson County Sheriff’s deputies, Mt. Vernon and Jefferson fire departments, along with Litton’s Ambulance Service responded to the high school. The school was placed on lockdown and even though the School Resource Officer advised there was no issue in the building, officers swept the school to insure the students and staff were all safe.

Page says he’s thankful the incident was just a training opportunity and not an actual emergency situation.

Police were unable to “ping” the calls and it’s believed they were made through a computer app. Page says State officials were notified of the events and they believe the calls were made from outside the US.