Students and staff were back at the Akerley campus of the Nova Scotia Community College today after it was evacuated because of an alleged threat Thursday evening.

Police received a call from a faculty member at 5:15 p.m., indicating an anonymous caller had threatened to harm people if they left the building before 6 p.m.

Student Shannon MacKinnon was among those who returned to class Friday morning.

“Everyone’s a little relieved, a little more on edge,” she said.

The call apparently went to the culinary department at the Dartmouth college, where students were preparing to serve the evening meal at the school’s restaurant.

Floriana Schnell was inside the dining room, where the threatening call was received.

“I didn’t really pay attention to it until I saw the guy who picked up the phone turn white,” Schnell said.

Roughly 100 students were in the school at the time, as well as several young children and infants at the adjacent daycare. The school was put on lockdown until police arrived on scene.

Officers, including patrol units from the Halifax Regional Police and RCMP, as well as members of the emergency response team, quickly flooded the area and evacuated the building.

Social media played an important role in police communications during the lockdown.

Very early into their response to the unfolding situation, Halifax police tweeted out news of the lockdown, emphasizing that no threat had been confirmed and that officers were on the scene.

Within five minutes, the message was retweeted more than 80 times.

“We do realize when we have these emergencies or emergency situations, we need to get the word out very quickly,” said Cst. Pierre Bourdages.

Bourdages said police also used social media to communicate with students inside the building looking for directions.

Police performed a sweep of the building, but did not find any evidence of a threat to public safety on campus. Investigators are still trying to determine who made the call.

The lockdown was lifted before 10 p.m. Thursday.

On Friday, counselling services were being offered to any students in need.

The college, meanwhile, took precautionary measures.

“As a result of yesterday’s incident, we did augment our security staff, just to have a higher presence of security, and Halifax Regional Police area here today,” said Bill Strubank, NSCC’s security manager.

Anyone with information about Thursday’s incident is asked to contact police.

It wasn’t the first time in recent months the college was placed under lockdown.

In December, an alleged threat was made: police were called and the school was put under lockdown as a precaution.

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Amanda Debison