Bomb Scare at Louisiana State University
ByJust over the weekend, students and faculty of North Dakota State University Fargo campus, University of Texas at Austin and a smaller Hiram college in Ohio had to go through the frightening experience of false bomb threats.
Now it is Louisiana State University's turn to experience the bomb scare.
After the University campus was evacuated over bomb threat, the university officials confirmed late Monday that the campus has been reopened.
An anonymous call came into 911 at 10:32 a.m., university spokesperson Kristine Calongne told Los Angeles Times. Apparently, the caller did not specify any particular area in campus that was targeted; so police and bomb-sniffing dogs had to meticulously sweep each of the 250 buildings on campus, reports FoxNews.
The university immediately issued an emergency alert on its website and alerted everyone through text message and social media. The Baton Rouge campus, that has about 30,000 students, professors and university employees in it, was evacuated about an hour later.
Following the evacuation, the authorities spent most of the day searching for the explosives, but there were none to be found. They continued to search even in the evening when students slowly started returning to their respective dorms.
The university said the whole campus was back to normal by 11 p.m.
"All campus buildings have been returned to normal operations and the campus is now open for students, faculty and staff," LSU said on its website.
The university is probing into the anonymous call.
The Sept.14 threats at NDSU-Fargo, UT-Austin, Hiram were also proved to be false after hours of thorough search.
Capt. Doug Cain of the Louisiana State Police told the Associated Press that police were working with departments in other states to determine whether the bomb threats are related.
In the wake of Middle East riots, universities are extremely cautious about such threats and refuse to take chances.
LSU System President William Jenkins told The Advocate that he readied the school's emergency response systems after learning about the bomb threat.
"We hope it's a hoax, but we can't take that chance," he said.