CUPECOY--More than 250 persons were evacuated from American University of the Caribbean (AUC) School of Medicine on Monday after the institution received a bomb threat via e-mail.
Police spokesperson Chief Inspector Ricardo Henson said the police had been alerted about the threat around 8:30am Monday.
Several patrols were sent to the area immediately to divert traffic and to assist the school security with the evacuation of the premises and other surrounding buildings. The Fire and Ambulance Departments were on standby in the immediate vicinity to respond promptly if necessary.
A police search team together with several school security officers performed a complete sweep of all buildings on the premises. The search ended at approximately 12:30pm without the team finding any bomb or any other explosive device on the site.
Students and personnel of the institution were allowed to return to the premises after the search team gave the “all clear” and other persons were allowed to return to their respective buildings in the area. The traffic diversion also ended and traffic was allowed to flow normally, Henson said.
The Police Forensic Department will be conducting an investigation into the origin of the e-mail and identifying the person(s) responsible for making the threat. “Making of this type of threat ... is a very serious criminal act and is punishable by law,” Henson said.
AUC did not respond to questions on how the threat had affected the institution, how many classes had been disrupted, how many students had been affected, whether it was aware of where the threat had come from and whether this was the first time AUC had received a bomb threat.
An AUC representative said the institution had been evacuated while police conducted its search and classes had been resumed after the “all clear” had been given. The representative said the best source of information for this newspaper’s queries would be the police.
