DYERSBURG, Tenn. – A creepy clown shut down a Tennessee middle school Tuesday after teachers spotted them lurking in the woods during recess.

“About 12:30 today, an unknown adult was sighted in the outside tree line of Dyersburg Intermediate School. As a precautionary measure, Police were called. Students were brought back into the school,” the school’s Facebook page warned parents.

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“There was no contact between this individual and anyone at Dyersburg Intermediate School. Police are investigating.”

Police told WBBJ a fourth grade class was on recess when two teachers spotted someone dressed as a clown leering at children before the person walked back into the woods.

The teachers, interviewed individually, gave the same description.

“Police say the teachers described the clown as wearing a bright red wig, a red nose and having a white face,” according to the news site. “They say the person was wearing a yellow t-shirt and dark pants.”

“You know, I thought it was a joke until they spotted one today here and it’s kind of scary,” neighborhood resident Jeanine Johnson told WBBJ.

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“I have four kids that live here so it’s, I mean, it’s scary,” Angela Benthal added. “It’s right here close to home.”

Officials put Dyersburg Intermediate School on lockdown while police searched the area for about an hour and a half, but officers did not come across the clown, WREG reports.

The local creepy clown sighting is the latest in a wave of similar reports in numerous states, primarily in the eastern United States, involving creepy clowns lurking in the woods. In some instances, the clowns have attacked young children or attempted to lure them into the woods, while other situations played out as threats online, EAGnews reports.

In Masontown, Pennsylvania a resident of Virginia Avenue reported a creepy clown in their back yard on Monday, and parents and students waiting at a school bus stop also came across a clown on Tuesday morning. A third sighting occurred Tuesday evening in Masontown German Park, KDKA reports.

Last week in Tennessee, a Coffee County student told sheriff Steve Graves that a creepy clown came out of a Summitville woods, slashed him on the arm, and ran away.

“An individual dressed in a red hoodie and a clown mask came running at him,” Graves told WTVF. “It’s people who have probably seen this on social media and thinks it’s funny.”

The week prior, La Grange, Georgia police arrested four teens for making terroristic threats and disrupting public schools for allegedly threatening students of several specific schools on Facebook. The posts alleged a creepy clown in a white van was going to abduct children, WXIA reports.

Similar threats made by a Facebook user called “Flomo Clown” triggered a lockdown at two Alabama schools two weeks ago, Escambia County High School and Flomation High School, WKRG reports.

The threat that “it’s going down tonight” accompanied by crying and pistol emojis convinced police to investigate. Despite online reports that the “Flomo Clown” was roaming school grounds, police officials were unable to confirm an actual sighting.

Also two weeks ago, a Macon, Georgia mother called 911 when her children were chased from a bus stop by creepy clowns, according to the Telegraph of Macon.