A children's hospital in Aurora, Colorado, was thrown into lockdown Friday morning after someone falsely reported an active shooter and a barricaded gunman inside the building — the latest in a wave of "swatting" hoaxes that have hit hospitals, schools and college campuses across the country this year.

Aurora police say the call came in just before 8:20 a.m. Friday, claiming there was a shooting and a barricaded subject at Children's Hospital Colorado's Anschutz Medical Campus. The hospital went into lockdown around 8:30 a.m. as patrol officers, University of Colorado police, Aurora Fire Rescue and hospital security descended on the sprawling 486-bed campus, which serves a seven-state region and houses Colorado's only verified Level 1 Pediatric Trauma Center.

Within minutes, responders determined there was no shooter and no hostage situation — the report was fabricated. Police say all patients and staff were safe throughout. Aurora police are now working with federal partners to trace the source of the call, a process officials say is often difficult because swatting calls are frequently routed through spoofed numbers or overseas relay services.

A hospital that can't afford to be locked down

Unlike a swatted house or a prank 911 call to an empty office, a lockdown at a facility housing critical trauma and surgical units carries real stakes: active operations, emergency triage and incoming trauma transports can all be disrupted while armed officers clear hallways and secure entrances. Friday's incident is part of a documented surge in hoax active-shooter calls targeting institutions that can least absorb the disruption. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center has warned that swatting has increasingly shifted from private residences toward schools, hospitals, government buildings and transit hubs specifically to maximize fear and chaos.

Friday's call is also at least the second hoax lockdown to hit the Denver metro area's institutions this month, following a similar false alarm at a West Virginia university child-care center the same morning — underscoring how easily a single anonymous call can paralyze a facility built to save lives.

No arrests have been announced. Aurora police have not said whether they believe the call originated locally or, as in many swatting cases nationwide, was placed from outside the state or country. The investigation remains open, and authorities have not released the exact language of the original 911 report.

Children's Hospital Colorado has not issued a separate public statement beyond confirming, through police, that operations returned to normal after the all-clear. The Anschutz campus resumed regular visitor and patient procedures later Friday morning.