Bogus Bomb Threat Evacuates School

Written by:

Shawn J. Soper - News Editor

SHOWELL -- Hundreds of Showell Elementary students were evacuated from the school building for a couple of hours yesterday as authorities investigated a potential bomb threat.

Around 8:40 a.m. yesterday, Maryland State Police officers responded to Showell Elementary to investigate a reported bomb threat on the school made during an apparent domestic dispute Wednesday night. According to a source close to the situation, an unidentified man was involved in a domestic dispute with his estranged wife, the mother of a student at Showell, the night before and made a veiled threat to blow up a classroom at the facility.

School officials immediately set in motion Showell’s prescribed and practiced emergency plan and the students, teachers and staff were evacuated from the building in a measure of “extreme caution.” The students, teachers and administrators remained outside the building for about two hours as Maryland State Police investigators along with allied law enforcement agencies searched the building for a potential explosive device.

A bomb-sniffing dog was brought in to do a complete scan of the school building and property, which turned up negative. Students, teachers and administrators started trickling back into the facility around 11 a.m., over two hours after police first arrived on the scene.

Colonel Doug Dods of the Worcester County Sheriff’s Office said yesterday the investigation was ongoing.

“At this point, we don’t think it was a valid threat,” he said. “Investigators are trying to track down where it came from. It appears somebody took something out of context. We had people calling and telling us there were armed gunmen in the school. That’s how it snowballs.”

According to Superintendent of Schools Dr. Jon Andes, when police informed school administrators of the potential threat, Showell Elementary’s school safety plan was immediately put into effect.

“The State Police arrived at the school around 8:40 a.m. and informed the administration about the situation,” he said. “As a result of that information, we implemented the school’s safety plan, which we practice and rehearse monthly in preparation for a potential situation such as this. Our primary concern is for the safety the children, and as a precaution we evacuated the facility to provide police with an opportunity to search the school.”

County Schools Public Information Officer Barb Witherow said yesterday the school’s automated message system was activated to inform parents about the pending situation.

“The students practice evacuation drills once a month and as a result, we had a very calm and very organized evacuation,” she said. “You hope that you never need the plan in real life, but it worked exactly how it was designed to work.”

Source; mdcoastdispatch.com http://www.mdcoastdispatch.com/articles/2011/04/08/Top-Stories/Bogus-Bomb-Threat-Evacuates-School

Tourists Return To Eiffel Tower After Bomb Scare For Second Time In Two Weeks

PARIS -- Visitors returned to the Eiffel Tower on Tuesday night after French police closed the landmark for the second time in less than a month due to a bomb threat, witnesses said.

The tower and the surrounding Champ de Mars park were briefly evacuated after police received the alert, the fourth in the Paris region in as many weeks. A search, however, turned up nothing, police told Reuters.

The threat, which claimed a bomb had been placed at the base, was called in from a phone booth near the Paris icon, police told CNN. No further details of the threat were immediately available, but the tower reopened about 2 1/2 hours later.

Niki Cheong, a Malaysian tourist, told CNN he was standing beneath the 1,063-foot tower when police began running crime-scene tape around the base of the structure.

"Everybody was told to cross the street and move ... away from the tower," he said. The officers said only that an unspecified "problem" caused the evacuation, he said.

The tower remained illuminated, and onlookers applauded when the tower began its routine sparkling at the top of the hour, Cheong said. Tourists were allowed to return shortly before 9 p.m.

It was also the second evacuation of the Eiffel Tower and Champ de Mars due to a bomb alert -- which also failed to turn up any explosives -- in two weeks.

French security officials said last week the country was on heightened alert after receiving a tip-off of a planned suicide attack on the Paris metro.

Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux said on Sept. 20 France faced a real terrorism threat due to a backlash from al Qaeda militants in North Africa, with fears growing of an attack from home-grown cells within French borders.
www.wtkr.com

Bomb Threats - Newport News, Hampton, Portsmouth

Courthouses in Newport News, Hampton and Portsmouth were evacuated this morning following a bomb threat this morning, according to police.

Hampton police spokeswoman Allison Quinones said that city's courthouses reopened around 11:15 a.m. The Newport News Courthouse reopened at 11:45 p.m. Portsmouth remains closed.

Kathleen Carey, spokeswoman for the Newport News Sheriff's Office, said two threats were phoned in to 911 this morning - one at 9:23 and the other at 10:01 - regarding bombs at courthouses in Newport News, Hampton and Portsmouth. The caller, who wasn't specific about which courthouses, threatened to bomb them at 10:30 a.m., according to Harold Eley, a spokesman for the Newport News police department.

Police in Newport News and Hampton have evacuated all courthouses, with the exception of the federal courthouse in Newport News. Portsmouth Circuit Court has also been evacuated. In Newport News, K-9 units arrived around 10:30 a.m. to begin checking for explosives.
In Hampton, police closed the blocks of King and Lincoln Streets and Pembroke Avenue surrounding the courthouses. In Newport News, police have shut down 25th and 26th streets as well as Huntington Avenue to West Street.

www.dailypress.com