A hoax emergency call falsely claimed there was a hostage situation at the Florida home of gun-control activist David Hogg, leading to a search of the property this morning.

A Broward Sheriff's Office (BSO) SWAT team responded to the house but found no one there.

"According to BSO, deputies received a call at around 8:30 am, saying someone broke into Hogg's home with an AR-15 rifle and was holding the family hostage," WSVN reported. "Deputies determined that no one was home at the time and that the call was unfounded."

"A nearby elementary school was also placed on lockdown for over an hour before police cleared the area," NBC 6 reported.

The 18-year-old Hogg survived the February mass shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and has become a prominent advocate for stricter gun control laws. Hogg wasn't home during this morning's search because he's in Washington, DC, with his family for the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award ceremony, which is honoring the March for Our Lives advocacy group founded by Hogg and other Stoneman Douglas students.

Swatting can be deadly

Hogg told ABC News that the hoax "was just a silly prank."

But the practice of making false reports to trigger huge police responses to a person's home—known as swatting—can be dangerous. A December 2017 swatting incident in Kansas led to a man's death when police shot the swatting victim. A man accused of making that hoax phone call has been charged with involuntary manslaughter.

Law enforcement authorities are still trying to determine who made the swatting call on Hogg's home.

Hogg told WSVN that whoever is behind the swatting hoax is "trying to distract people from the March For Our Lives Road to Change, which we announced yesterday." The campaign is "a push to get the highest numbers of youth voters ever in American history turn out to vote come this November."