Officials with Hawkins County EMS Ambulance Services confirmed multiple ambulances were called to Volunteer High School in east Tennessee.

       The Hawkins County Sheriff’s Office released a statement on Facebook that said they responded to reports of an active shooter.

       It read: “This morning, just before 8:00am, the Hawkins County Sheriff’s Office received a call stating that an active shooter was inside Volunteer High School.

       “Deputies responded and immediately began searching the school.

       “At this time, a suspect has not been located and no injuries have been reported.

       “The investigation is ongoing, and multiple agencies are assisting.”

       It is believed a gun was found at the school.

       The school district confirmed students were evacuated on buses to a National Guard Armory to be picked up by their parents.

       The statement read: “There has been an emergency situation at Volunteer High School.

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       “Our major concern at this time is for the safety of our students and staff; please stay clear of the area to allow law enforcement and emergency personnel access to the area.”

       Other schools in the county were also placed on a temporary lockdown which was later lifted.

       One distraught mother told News4 Nashville that her 15-year-old son was locked down in the high school.

       She said: “He was distraught.

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       "He said, ‘Mom, there’s a shooter in the school,’ and I lost it.

       “I said, ‘I’ll be right there’.

       “I just want him out of the school.”

       Students returned to the classroom on Monday for half a day.

       This month there have been at least six separate mass shootings across the US.

       On August 1, five people were wounded in a parking lot in Rhode Island and a man was killed and three wounded in an early morning shooting in Texas.

       A teenager was killed and two teenagers and an adult were wounded by a teenager in New Orleans.

       A further five adults were wounded in a shooting near Bourbon Street in New Orleans.

       Nine people were wounded in the early morning at a local dance studio in Columbia, South Carolina on August 2.

       On the same day, a furtheer, two adults and a child were killed and a child wounded in a home in Greenwood, South Carolina.

       The shooter was arrested in Florida shortly after.