An armed man walked in to the Eastern Niagara Hospital in Lockport, N.Y., on Saturday morning and threatened emergency staff with guns and what he claimed was a bomb, police said.
“He held up the hospital, and he did make off with some prescriptions,” Lockport Police Department spokeswoman Julie Snyder told CNN.
The man entered the hospital around 4:47 a.m. carrying two guns and a suspected bomb and wearing a ski mask, police said.
The emergency department staff “provided the man, who was armed, with a limited amount of drugs. There were no shots fired in the Hospital facility,” hospital spokeswoman Carolyn Moore said in a statement.
The man then fled the hospital and remains at large. Lockport is in Niagara County in western New York state and is more than 20 miles north of Buffalo.
“The guns and the suspected bomb has been recovered by law enforcement. The bomb squad is on scene,” a Lockport Police Facebook post said.
Lockport residents had been told to stay indoors as officers hunted for the suspect.
Police later “lifted the shelter in place” and said the “area is now safe to the public,” the Niagara County sheriff’s office said . The hospital had been on lockdown and a perimeter had been secured around the property but was cleared by late morning, said Snyder.
Images from CNN affiliate WIVB showed a police SWAT team outside the hospital and a helicopter surveying the area.
Police described the suspect as a white male, six feet tall with blond hair. He was wearing khaki pants, a khaki shirt and a ski mask.
No injuries were reported as a result of the incident, said Snyder.
“The Hospital wishes to convey to the public that all patients and staff at the facility are safe. Ambulances are on diversion at this time,” Moore said in a statement.