NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. – Rutgers University students were afraid for their lives yesterday when school officials sent out a mass text warning about a “armed suspect” near the library.

A half hour later they sent another text: “End training scenario. End training scenario Alexander Library,” Pix 11 reports.

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The incident occurred around 9:45 a.m., and many students told the news site they didn’t know about the drill. At the bottom of the first text was the message “TEST TEST,” they later realized.

“People were panicked. It was like oh my God there’s a shooter on campus,” Donna Auston, a Rutgers student, told the news site.

The initial message read: “Armed suspect in area of Alexander Library seek a safe space and shield/secure your location.”

“#Rutgers emergency alert should have LEAD with the words THIS IS A TEST,” Auston tweeted after the ordeal. “Most ppl zone out after they see the words ‘Armed Suspect.’”

Auston said her daughter is also a student at Reuters.

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“My immediate reaction was to locate where she was,” she said.

Numerous students spoke out about the incident on Twitter.

“Rutgers should’ve probably put ‘TEST’ at the beginning of that text,” jay wrote.

“Thanks Rutgers for worrying my family with that text,” Allison added. “Sigh* it’s a test. Could’ve used a different message?”

“What an awful training scenario Rutgers,” pitit fle posted.

School officials later issued a statement about the confusion.

“We recognize that the wording of the initial message caused some concern and alarm amongst recipients; however the message was sent only to test the University’s Emergency Notification System (ENS),” the university’s deputy police chief, Michael Rein, said, according to NJ.com.

“Kenneth Cop, Rutgers’ executive director of public safety, pointed out that the drill was conducted after a warning email sent Wednesday.

“Each year, University Public Safety collaborates with various departments at Rutgers University – New Brunswick to conduct emergency response exercises, such as table top exercises, field exercises, and tests of the emergency notification system,” Cop said in the statement.

Some folks who criticized the school over social media pointed to the bad timing of the exercise, coming just days after a mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando.

“Yeah just fake a shooter on campus with everything going on this week and then say it was just a test,” Shannon wrote, according to Pix 11. “Cool.”

“Really Rutgers nearly had a heart attack!” Ash tweeted.