The scary and troubling clown trend is not only spreading — it’s escalating.

In Reading, Ohio, on Friday, a woman reported being attacked by a man dressed as a clown. The woman told police the attacker made a threat against students at nearby Colerain High School.

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Kim Youngblood was smoking a cigarette on her porch at South Terrace Apartments when the clown appeared, according to a report on Cincinnati.com. The male grabbed Youngblood by the throat and reportedly stated, “I should just kill you now.”

“I should just kill you now,” said the creep.

Youngblood said the clown then spoke these menacing words: “Some students and teachers would wish they were never born at the junior and senior high school today.”

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Youngblood told police that the clown, who was wearing a red wig, white clown mask, and striped outfit, ran off after an alarm sounded in a nearby apartment.

No arrests have been made in the attack, and schools were closed out of concern for of students that walk to school early, according to the Reading Community City School District.

Threats were found on a Twitter account titled “Clown Clan.”

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In Colerain Township, north of Cincinnati, police arrested a juvenile in connection with a clown threat late Thursday. “This suspect used the current ‘clown’ trend to further terrorize parents and students and has been charged with Making Terrorist Threats and Inducing Panic,” police said in a Facebook post.

Both of those charges are felonies. Police did not reveal the name or age of the suspect.

This terror-inducing costumed clown trend apparently originated with a story out of an apartment complex in Greenville, South Carolina, last month. Since then, clowns have been bothering people in Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee.

Related: Clowning Around Turns Creepy

At least two schools in Alabama were on lockdown last week after a series of Facebook posts from users posing as clowns threatened local children with violence.

In Gallatin County, Kentucky, the sheriff even contacted the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security over the threats — warning people that anyone responsible might face charges of “inducing panic and terroristic threatening.”