A Suffolk elementary school was placed on lockdown Monday afternoon when an unknown man came into the school and refused to leave.

Personnel at Mack Benn Jr. Elementary School, located in the 1200 block of Nansemond Parkway, reported the incident to emergency dispatchers at 1:36 p.m., according to a city press release from spokeswoman Diana Klink.

They said the black male, who wore a blue hat and blue jacket, had entered the school, gone into the restroom and initially refused to leave.

School officials made the decision to put the school on lockdown, but the principal eventually was able to persuade the man to leave.

Suffolk police found the man on Portsmouth Boulevard.

“It was determined that the male, age 36, had a diminished mental capacity and officers were able to safely return him to his residence,” Klink wrote in the press release.