Students were forced to evacuate New Hall Friday afternoon after students playing Frisbee in one of the hallways hit either a fire alarm or sprinkler head, causing the sprinklers to go off.

Witnesses on the ninth floor said a fire alarm began to sound and the sprinklers began to spray water all over the hallway.

Sophomore Ryan DeWerd, who lives on the ninth floor, said there was flooding both in the hallway and the rooms.

“At the time, I was cooking lunch for myself,” he said. “When I first heard the alarm, I didn’t pay much attention to it. But as the water seeped in under the door, we began to put towels there to keep it out.”

DeWerd said the water began to build up in the hallway as the sprinklers continued to spray.

“I’d say at its peak there were roughly three inches of water in the hallway,” he said.

University Police officers on the scene refused to comment, and UPD Chief Dolores Stafford could not be reached before press time. Students said water was dripping down to the eighth floor. It is unclear how many other floors were affected.

DeWerd said the building was evacuated for about two hours while authorities assessed and cleaned the damaged areas.

“The police really did a great job in minimizing the damage, which could have been much worse,” he said Saturday. “Today they came in and shampooed all the carpets on our floor.”

The students who caused the incident have turned themselves in to UPD, residents in the building said.