BELLE FOURCHE - Mysterious gunshots that prompted the lockdown of a western South Dakota school turned out to be nothing of the sort.

Belle Fourche Police Chief Rob Hansen tells KBFS radio that a resident on Wednesday informed authorities that a vehicle he was working on backfired numerous times at about the same time reports of gunshots were called in to police Tuesday.

Those calls prompted the lockdown of South Park Elementary School, a police search of the area and the posting of an officer at the school for the remainder of the school day.

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