Canadian and U.S. authorities responded to bomb threat hoaxes at dozens of schools, government offices and other locations on Thursday.
Bomb threats were reported in several Canadian cities, including Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary, Winnipeg and across British Columbia, according to RCMP detachments and local police forces.
Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale released a statement saying the ministry was “aware of multiple bomb threats being made in cities across the country today.”
He encouraged people to report anything suspicious to law enforcement and that “swatting incidents” would be investigated.
A downtown subway station in Toronto was briefly evacuated on Thursday afternoon after a threat was received in the area. But trains resumed service after a few hours.
A Toronto police spokesperson told CTV Toronto couldn't confirm whether the threat made there or those throughout the city were connected to the ones in other cities.
A news release from Ontario Provincial Police outlined how it responded to several threats throughout areas in the Bruce Peninsula, and in Grey County.
“The threats contained within the messages appear to be unfounded,” it read.
Bomb threats in Calgary, Winnipeg, across B.C. and Sask.
In Calgary, police tweeted that the bomb threats they had received were hoaxes. Winnipeg police tweeted that bomb threats had been sent to local business email accounts but added that none of them were substantiated.
Local police also reported bomb threats made to several businesses in Regina and Saskatoon. Regina police told CTV Regina that four businesses had received email threats.
Saskatoon police confirmed that one business was evacuated after it had received a threatening email. Both police forces said the threats appeared to be unfounded.
In Penticton, Vernon and Kamloops, B.C., three bomb threats were sent to car dealerships which were evacuated as local police investigated.
In Montreal, five different businesses received threatening emails but police reported that nothing suspicious at the locations were found.
In the U.S., American law enforcement agencies dismissed the threats as not credible and described them as hoaxes meant to cause disruption and prompt people to send money in Bitcoin.
The series of bomb threats include the city hall building in Aurora, Illinois; a school in Troy, Missouri; businesses in Detroit; offices of the News & Observer newspaper in Raleigh, North Carolina; and a suburban Atlanta courthouse.
Additionally, police in Palm Beach County, Florida and Boise, Idaho also reported that they responded to threats in their areas but authorities called them hoaxes.
The FBI didn’t respond to a request for comment to The Associated Press.
Some places affected in the U.S. received emails with the subject line “Think Twice” and a demand of $20,000 in Bitcoin in order to call off the threat.
The sender of the emails claimed they had an accomplice who had planted a small explosive device in the building. But authorities across the U.S. have yet to find any explosive device related to threats yet.
"We are currently monitoring multiple bomb threats that have been sent electronically to various locations throughout the city," the New York City Police Department's counterterrorism unit tweeted, adding that they hadn’t deemed the threats weren’t credible.
Some police agencies told The Associated Press that the threats were made in a choppy style similar to those in a “Nigerian prince email scam.”
With files from CTV Toronto, CTV Calgary, CTV Vancouver, The Canadian Press and The Associated Press
