“The Winston-Salem Police Department is aware that similar incidents have occurred recently in South Carolina and is taking this matter seriously,” the department said in a statement, adding that patrols would be increased in the area.

The panic has not abated. In nearby Greensboro, N.C., the local paper carried a report of a man with a machete who chased a clown into the woods on Tuesday. The police could not locate the clown, described as having red curly hair, wearing a mask, a yellow dotted shirt and blue pants, according to The News & Record.

Meanwhile, in South Carolina, the police in Greenville said they had responded to four clown sightings in late August. On Aug. 29, a boy reported that two people dressed as clowns were standing near an apartment complex. The next day, a woman called to say she saw two others close to a playground at the complex, the police said.

On Aug. 31, a boy spotted a person dressed in black, wearing a clown mask and walking toward the backyard of a home. On the same day, a 45-year-old woman said that a middle-age man, wearing clownlike face makeup and red hair, “was standing outside the laundromat, and stared at her as she exited,” the report said.

The police were unable to locate the people in the costumes. They said there had been no indication that anyone had attempted to contact or lure children into the woods in those cases.

The sightings prompted the city police chief, Ken Miller, to issue a warning, the The Greenville News reported.

At a news conference, the chief said: “It’s illegal. It’s dangerous. It’s inappropriate, and it’s creating community concern so it needs to stop,” according to The News.