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All other schools in Medicine Hat were in lockdown, though students attended classes as normal. Local police and Redcliff RCMP posted extra officers at each of the community’s high schools.

At the end of the school day, students were dismissed from classes under close supervision, according to advisories posted on school board websites.

Police said the messages appear to be “very similar” to a prank carried out by a high school student in the midwestern United States in 2013.

In Medicine Hat, the threatening text came from an unusual number, though it named several local students, said Staff Sgt. Brian Christmann.

“It’s looking like it’s coming from a fake number off the Internet and probably being routed through the U.S. somewhere, and it could very well be a prank,” Christmann said.

“But we still have to take it seriously. So there is a lot of resources being dumped into this already today.”

Christmann said he was unaware whether all five students received the text, though at least a couple of them had received similar messages before, but it doesn’t appear they told their parents.

“It sounds like now there was actual names put in the text message, it got at least one of the kids concerned, who told their parents who then phoned the police,” he said.

Medicine Hat police have received other complaints of similar threats, sometimes depicting weapons in the past few weeks or months. These threats had not been previously reported to police but are now under investigation to determine their credibility.