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Person of interest detained in armed robbery of hospital

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LOCKPORT, N.Y. — According to local media reports, the search for the hospital robbery suspect in New York is over.

People inside a New York hospital and the residents around it were told to shelter in place Saturday morning after an armed man robbed a hospital emergency room of drugs.

Police in Lockport told residents living near Eastern Niagara Hospital Lockport to shelter in place in an alert issued at 6:25 a.m.

A man armed with a pair of guns and "what was claimed to be a bomb" walked into the hospital around 4:45 a.m., according to the Lockport Police Department. Hospital officials confirmed  the man demanded drugs from staff in Eastern Niagara Hospital's emergency department and said he was given "a limited amount" of the unidentified medications.

Contrary to early reports, hospital officials said in a statement that no shots were fired at the facility. No injuries were reported.

"Eastern Niagara Hospital appreciates the very professional and appropriate responses by the staff in its emergency department this morning at the time of the incident," officials said. "Their actions were commendable."

The man was described as a white man around 6 feet tall in his late teens or early 20s, according to the East Niagara Post. He has blond hair.

Police said authorities recovered the guns and the suspected bomb involved in the incident. A bomb squad was at the hospital Saturday morning.

"(The suspect) is said to have discarded those long guns in the ENH parking lot but may still be armed and is considered dangerous," the East Niagara Post reported.