Students at the New York University Tandon School of Engineering in Brooklyn received a very scary tweet on Tuesday. It told them to “run, hide or fight.”

Shots were fired in broad daylight at the Metrotech Center near the school’s campus in downtown Brooklyn on Tuesday. It caused panic around the campus and triggered an alert by the school’s security to students’ phones.

According to the New York City Police Department, shots were fired at around 10:45 am on Tuesday near the Metrotech Center, and around ten men were spotted running from the area shortly after.

Although the police have received no reports of injuries from the scene, they found five shell casings at the scene of the crime and blood on the sidewalk of a nearby subway station. They are contacting local hospitals looking for gunshot victims.

Speaking to the New York Post, a witness, who didn’t want his identity revealed, told the news outlet that the shooters were teenagers and he knew to get away when the shootings began. 

He did not give any further details about the teenagers for fear that the shooting might be gang-related. However, he noted that the incident might be related to two gangs, Bloods and Crips, adding that he had two daughters who still needed their father, and because he worked in the area every day, he could not speak further about the incident publicly.

The incident, which happened in the Jay Street, Brooklyn area, led to a lockdown of all public schools in the vicinity. It also prompted the security team at the NYU campus to issue the controversial alert to its students.

The warning issued in the tweet said that if any students were in the area, they should either run, hide or fight, warning anyone not in the area to stay away. It said that help was on the way. The NYU Campus safety office sent the alert at 10:47 am, and about an hour later, a follow-up tweet announced that the area was clear and police were in the vicinity.

New York’s City’s Department of Education ordered several public schools in the area to shut down, but didn’t give information about which schools and how many students were affected. The lockdown was lifted after a few hours.

John Beckham, a representative for New York University, said that the shooting was not university-related. He said that authorities had informed university officials that there was no ongoing threat and that normal activity could resume.

The police are still investigating the shooting incident and have not arrested anyone.

The “run, hide or fight” directive comes from the FBI. It was part of a directive by the FBI advising citizens on what to do if caught in a mass shooting.

The directive strongly urges people to hide if there is no opportunity to run, and to fight if there is nowhere for them to hide. According to an educational video, people should only fight as a last resort and do everything they can to stay alive.