Alabamans Evacuate Malls Amid Bogus Bomb Threats

Read Time:2 Minute, 1 Second

(TNS) – Several Alabama shopping centers were targets of bomb threats Friday morning.

Police in Tuscaloosa, Huntsville, Mobile and Leeds are among those who reported receiving the bogus threats.

Tuscaloosa police officers responded about 10:30 a.m. to University Mall after staff received an email bomb threat that was later determined to be a hoax, said police spokeswoman Stephanie Taylor.

Although there was no indication the threat was valid, nearly two dozen officers responded with assistance from UAPD, Taylor said.

Officers and bomb-sniffing dogs checked all interior and exterior areas of the property before deeming it safe.

The mall remained open while officers conducted a thorough security check of the premises.

An all-clear was declared shortly after 11 a.m.

Leeds police also responded Friday morning to the Shops of Grand River after shopping center, but deemed the threat a hoax as well.

The Huntsville Police Department was dispatched at 10:30 a.m. to the Parkway Place Mall. Police did not evacuate the mall and said the threat was unfounded, according to television reports.

The Shoppes at Bel Air was evacuated Friday morning, according to a Mobile television. Employees and customers at the mall were asked to leave the building.

All of the threats were delivered via email.

Birmingham police said they had not been dispatched to any bomb threats Friday, but did respond to bogus threats Thursday at the Birmingham Museum of Art, the McWane Center and Vulcan.

On Wednesday, Alabama’s State Capitol was included among a swath of other states that received a bomb threat.

A bomb threat emailed to officials in several states early Wednesday briefly disrupted government affairs and prompted some state capitol evacuations, but no explosives were found and federal officials quickly dismissed the threats as a hoax.

Taylor said Tuscaloosa investigators suspect that the same individual or group responsible for recent threats to government buildings, residences, businesses, and places of worship across the country and state is likely behind Friday’s hoax as well.