UNC issued an Alert Carolina message on Tuesday evening warning people of an “armed and dangerous person” on campus — but the alert was quickly rescinded and officials said there was no real threat to campus safety.

The university shared a message to all campus community members apologizing for an incorrect alert activated through the notification system. UNC said its emergency warning message was sent at the time a regular sirens test was being prepared, and there was no active danger to campus.

 

Minutes before, at 6:05 p.m., an initial Alert Carolina message was posted, urging people to go inside buildings and to avoid windows. The wording is the same the university has used in the past when someone believed to have firearms is on campus — like last August when a professor was fatally shot in Caudill Laboratory. Three minutes later, though, another Alert Carolina was issued giving an all clear and saying people could resume normal activities.

As UNC does before sirens tests, the Alert Carolina system had previously let the campus know of a test on June 14 set to take place on Tuesday. After the incorrect Alert Carolina message went out on Tuesday, though, a university spokesperson confirmed to Chapelboro the exercise would be postponed.

Alert Carolina messages can be accessed here on the university’s webpage to see past notifications and messages to the campus community.

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