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Cell phone garbles blamed for Ariz. confusion

A high school in Arizona was locked down Wednesday after a student reported seeing weapons on school grounds. Earlier reports of a standoff stemmed from a misunderstanding blamed on poor cell phone coverage, the FBI said.
/ Source: The Associated Press

A high school in northeastern Arizona was locked down Wednesday after a student reported seeing weapons on school grounds, an FBI spokeswoman said.

No students were taken hostage, nor was there a standoff with police, as some authorities had said early on, said Deborah McCarley, a spokeswoman for the FBI, which had an agent at Ganado High School after authorities received the report.

As a standard procedure for a report of weapons at the school, the building was locked down while students and school grounds were searched, McCarley said.

"They are investigating the allegations there was a student or students that have or had weapons on school grounds today," McCarley said.

McCarley said she knew of no weapons that were found at the school.

No injuries were reported.

McCarley attributed earlier reports of a standoff to a misunderstanding that stemmed from poor cell phone coverage from the geographically remote area.

Earlier, authorities said six armed people were holed up Wednesday at the school.

A male was armed with a gun, while five females had knives, said Jim Benally, police chief for Window Rock, a nearby community.

Ganado, a community of 1,500 people on Navajo Nation land, is 315 miles northeast of Phoenix.