NEW YORK, Dec 17, 2012 (AFP) - Reports of a suspicious person prompted the lockdown and deployment of police Monday at all schools in the Connecticut town of Ridgefield, near where a gunman massacred 26 people at another school last week.

"All schools have been put in lockdown and there is police presence at each building," the Ridgefield public schools system said in an alert on its website.

It cited "reports of a possibly suspicious person."

Ridgefield is close to Newtown, where a deranged 20-year-old resident entered the elementary school on Friday and shot 26 people, including 20 small children.