Three Seattle schools ordered students to “shelter in place” after a man opened fire with a handgun in the area and tried to lure several children into a car, police said late on Tuesday.

Police responded to reports of gunfire in the Washington state city’s Brighton neighborhood, south of downtown, around the time students usually leave school for the day, the Seattle Police Department said in a statement.

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The man was also trying “to lure several children into his car”, according to separate reports received by the department.

Local media reported there would be heightened security on Wednesday at the schools, which lock exterior doors during a “shelter-in-place” process, and that there had been no injuries.

Police arrested the 33-year-old man and recovered a loaded handgun after he was indentified by a witness.

He was being booked into King County Jail for “numerous crimes”, police said.

(Reporting by Eric M. Johnson; Editing by Louise Ireland)