Ohio State closes library, 3 labs in bomb scare
A bomb threat targeting Ohio State University was e-mailed to the FBI today morning, prompting the school to evacuate four academic buildings, including the main library. An initial search turned up nothing out of the ordinary, officials said.
The threat was in a message received today at FBI headquarters in Washington, said Paul Bresson, an agency spokesman based there. Campus police said they were alerted at 8:19 am today that the threats involved the William Oxley Thompson Memorial Library and three laboratory buildings.
"This is still in our assessment a threat, and there have been no suspicious package or devices found at this time," university Police Chief Paul Denton said at a news conference.
Authorities did not identify the source of the bomb threats at Ohio State, one of the country's largest universities, with more than 56,000 students at its main Columbus campus. The FBI's Bresson declined to provide information about where the e-mail appeared to come from or whether the bureau believed the threat was real.
University officials did not offer information on the nature of the threats and declined to speculate on why the four buildings were targeted.
All were evacuated and closed as investigators went through them with bomb-sniffing dogs, and authorities also closed off three streets.Students and faculty members were warned by text-message alerts and online and phone messages to stay clear of the buildings until 5 pm. The buildings would remain closed at least until that time, with their regular classes and other activities cancelled, said Vernon Baisden, the university's director public safety. Baisden could not specify how many students were affected by the evacuations.
All other classes and functions on campus will continue as scheduled, Baisden said.
The Columbus Fire Department bomb squad, school security and FBI were at the scene.
Besides the library, which is along the campus green area called The Oval, buildings closed were McPherson Chemical Lab, which houses the chemistry and astronomy departments; Smith Laboratory, which houses engineering experiments and anthropology; and Scott Laboratory, a mechanical engineering building.
