After a series of false bomb threats, more than 200 public buildings were cleared yesterday in Russia. In the capital Moscow and its surrounding area alone, more than 50,000 people were brought to safety, according to Russian news agencies. Also in St. Petersburg buildings had to be evacuated.
Bomb threats by e-mail
The threats were received by e-mail, according to the authorities they came from abroad, especially from Ukraine. The anonymous threats concerned schools, universities, hospitals, offices, shopping and commercial centers, according to news agencies TASS and Ria Novosti.
Once again St. Petersburg was affected. In the second largest city of Russia and other cities such as Krasnoyarsk and Volgograd, 55 buildings had already been evacuated last week following similar threats.
2017 wave of threats
Also this time all buildings were evacuated. In subsequent searches, however, no explosives were found. According to Russian media reports, the threats had a similar wording.
At the end of 2017 there had been a wave of anonymous bomb threats in Russia, but they were received by phone. Even then, no bombs were discovered. The secret service FSB later said that behind the phone calls were Russians living abroad who had a network of accomplices in Russia.
