Los Angeles:
An East Los Angeles college campus was evacuated on Thursday and about 10 nearby public schools were placed on a security lockdown after police received an anonymous call from a person claiming he had a gun and was en route to a school campus in the area, police said.
Meanwhile, a similar security scare unfolded at about the same time in Santa Monica, about 20 miles across the Los Angeles metropolitan area to the west, although that alert was later lifted. A police spokesman there said the two incidents "appear to be related."
Police in Santa Monica located a student they identified as the suspect in the college's psychological services office, where he had gone seeking help. He was taken into custody without incident, Lewis said.
He turned out not to be armed, and the security alert for the area was lifted, Lewis said.
On the east side of the city, a call from a man claiming to be armed and headed to a school in the east-side enclave of Monterey Park was received at about 8 a.m. local time by the California Highway Patrol, prompting the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department to order the evacuation of East Los Angeles College, the sheriff's office said.
Law enforcement personnel swarmed into the area to search for a possible suspect but none was immediately found, sheriff's officials said.
At about the same time, according to Santa Monica police, the highway patrol received a call from a man who described himself as suicidal, armed and intent on shooting up Santa Monica College.
That college was placed under lockdown, along with an adjacent public middle school, and a search of the area ensued, Santa Monica Police Sergeant Richard Lewis told Reuters.
Asked if the anonymous telephone threat referred to Santa Monica police and the one referred to the sheriff's office in East Los Angeles might have been two calls from the same person, Lewis said only that the incidents appeared to be related.
"Our agencies are talking to each other," he added, saying it would be up to the sheriff's department to decide if and when it was safe enough to lift the security alert in East Los Angeles.
© Thomson Reuters 2013