Ohio Police Say Threat Against 'American Students' Not Credible

An anonymous video posted on social media that threatened "American students" with death, prompting five Ohio school districts to close all their schools on Friday, has been dismissed by authorities as not credible.

"Tomorrow American students will die. Some of u are ok. Don't go to school tomorrow," the post said, according to a still image from the video published by the Athens County Sheriff's Office. The image showed a pistol in someone's hand.

The sheriff's office initially said the video was posted to the user group for Ohio University students on Yeti, a college-oriented and location-based social media app.

The department later said the video was posted by somebody in Europe and was reported to campus police by an Ohio University group member.

"Although the complainant belongs to the 'Ohio University' group, the video appeared in the complainant's feed based on key words, not location," the sheriff's office said in a statement, adding that there was no specific threat to the school or area.

The video was reported to university police early on Friday morning, but officials kept the main Athens campus open and said the university's scheduled commencement would go ahead, the sheriff's office said.

However, five area school districts - Athens City, Trimble, Alexander, Federal Hocking and Nelsonville-York - closed for the day, the sheriff's office said, affecting thousands of students.

Athens, Ohio, is located about 75 miles southeast of Columbus.

Last December, Los Angeles shut more than 1,000 public schools over a threatened attack with bombs and assault rifles, sending hundreds of thousands of students home as city leaders were criticized for overreacting to what authorities later said was apparently a hoax.