Police are responding to a report of an active shooter at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, where students have been instructed to shelter in place.
SWAT teams arrived at Villanova, a private Catholic university in a suburb of Philadelphia, after receiving a dispatch on Thursday afternoon.
Students and nearby residents were instructed to shelter in place, while people on campus were told to lock or barricade the doors.
Videos posted on social media showed people fleeing the area in panic, while multiple students said they had barricaded themselves inside rooms.
Ah nothing more American than an active shooter during first week of school….scene at Villanova today during first year student mass pic.twitter.com/TkNXwPYGVx
— Wu Tang is for the Children (@WUTangKids) August 21, 2025
Villanova President Peter Donohue later called the report of a shooter a “cruel hoax.”
“There was no active shooter, no injuries, and no evidence of firearms on campus,” he said in an emailed statement to the media.
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