Lockdown lifted at University of Toronto

TORONTO — A lockdown was lifted yesterday at the University of Toronto about four hours after police received reports of a suspicious man dressed in black with a backpack and mask.

Toronto Const. Allyson Douglas-Cook said an Emergency Task Force has declared that the scene, also near Ontario's provincial legislature, is all clear.

Tape around the locked down buildings was removed, and the buildings were then reopened. Some of the road closures in the area remain in effect.

Police said they haven't found the person who was reported, and nobody was injured in the course of the investigation.

Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders said that there had been multiple reports of a suspicious person in the neighborhood, including one unconfirmed report that the man was carrying a firearm.

Saunders said he saw photos of a man wearing all black and what appears to be a surgical mask.

"It's clear to say that we live in a different time right now," Saunders said when asked if the public should be proactive in reporting suspicious activity following the nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida, that was the worst mass shooting in US history.

The University of Toronto said a number of buildings on its downtown campus had been closed during the lockdown.

Dan Clifford, a mover working in the area, said he saw a man walking through the campus near the music building with a full scarf over his face. "He was talking to a tree or something," he said.