Law enforcement personnel respond to a report of a person armed with a rifle at Mount Horeb Middle School in Mount Horeb, Wis., Wednesday. JOHN HART — WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL VIA AP

By TODD RICHMOND | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MOUNT HOREB, Wis. >> Police shot and killed a Wisconsin student outside a middle school after receiving a report of someone with a weapon, the state’s attorney general said in the first law enforcement briefing on an incident that sent children fleeing amid gunfire.

Authorities in Mount Horeb had previously said an active shooter who never got inside was “neutralized” outside the district’s middle school building Wednesday.

Attorney General Josh Kaul said at the news briefing that no one inside the school was injured in the incident earlier Wednesday. He said the state Department of Justice is handling the ongoing investigation into the shooting.

For panicked kids and their parents, the initial incident and the wait to be reunited was terrifying. Parents described children hiding in closets, afraid to communicate on cellphones, and one middle schooler said his class initially fled the school gym on in-line skates.

The district used Facebook posts throughout the day to give updates, with the earliest coming around 11:30 a.m. and reporting that all district schools were on lockdown.

Authorities in Mount Horeb said without giving details that the “alleged assailant” was harmed, and witnesses described hearing gunshots and seeing dozens of children running.

More than four hours later, school buses remained lined up for blocks outside the middle school and authorities had used police tape to surround the middle school, the nearby high school and playing fields between the two buildings.

“An initial search of the middle school has not yielded additional suspects,” a post around noon said. “As importantly, we have no reports of individuals being harmed, with the exception of the alleged assailant.”

Earlier, the district posted that “the threat has been neutralized outside of the building” but didn’t elaborate on what had happened at the school in Mount Horeb, some 25 miles west of the state capital of Madison.

Jeanne Keller said she heard about five gunshots while in her shop The Quilting Jeanne, just down the block from the campus that includes the middle school.

Police in Mount Horeb said they could not immediately provide information. A person who answered the phone at the school district office declined comment. The Dane County Sheriff’s office directed reporters to a staging area but had not provided updates hours after the school district first alerted families about the incident.

Schools nationwide have sought ways to prevent mass shootings inside their walls, from physical security measures and active shooter drills to technology including detailed digital maps. Many also rely on teachers and administrators working to detect early signs of student mental health struggles.