The lockdown at the Colchester East Hants Health Centre in Truro, N.S., ended at 1:30 p.m., on Wednesday.
Carla Adams, a spokesperson for the Nova Scotia Health Authority, says the lockdown was put in place at 7:45 p.m. Tuesday on the advice of police as a safety measure during an “ongoing police investigation.”
It’s unclear what prompted the lockdown, but it was put into place only hours after another lockdown at the Colchester East Hants Health Centre had come to an end.
The first lockdown was in place from 4:40 p.m. to 5:20 p.m. on Tuesday.
READ MORE: Police investigating after shots reportedly fired in Millbrook, N.S. — RCMP
RCMP say that at 3:12 p.m., officers responded to reports of an altercation involving a number of people and shots fired at a home on Truro Heights Road, which is located only a short distance away from the hospital.
When they arrived on the scene, one person was found injured and taken to the Colchester East Hants Health Centre.
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One suspect was taken into custody, while a second fled on foot, according to authorities.
Janet Hazelton, president of the Nova Scotia Nurses’ Union, told Global News on Monday that the emergency room staff at the Colchester East Hants Health Centre called for the first lockdown procedure after they “feared for the safety of one of the people they were caring for in their department.
Hazelton said the lockdown was the first time that the province’s health authority has activated its new lockdown procedure — which came into effect only a month ago.
“Within the last three or four years there has been an increase in violence in our workplace,” she said in a phone interview.
Hazelton explained that the procedure was developed in response to an incident a few years ago where someone walked into a hospital with a firearm.
“One of the recommendations… was that we needed to have lockdown policies and procedures so that staff knew what to do if they felt they were in danger, or if one of the patients they were caring for was in danger,” she said.
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Police said the investigation into the alleged shooting is ongoing.
Investigators are asking anyone with information on this incident to call Millbrook RCMP at 902-893-6819.
—With files from Aya Al-Hakim
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