Bomb Threat at the University of Texas

Via the Daily Texan: Bomb threat evacuation continues, UT officials have found no weapons so far

UT sent out an emergency alert at 9:50 this morning urging all students, faculty and staff to "get as far away from campus as possible."

According to a statement, "At 8:35 a.m. the university received a call from a male with a middle eastern accent claiming to have placed bombs all over campus. He said he was with Al Qaeda and these bombs would go off in 90 minutes. President Powers was notified and it was decided to evacuate all of the buildings out of an abundance of caution."

UT officials and FBI personell are continuing to clear the buildings and have so far found no weapons. No one is being allowed back into the buildings. UT will continue to send out emergency alerts, though cell phone signal on many carriers is jammed. We’ll post updates here as we have them.

Hopefully this was just a hoax perpetrated by someone who needed the weekend to study for an exam (and hopefully they are caught and charged). 

Still:  UT is freakin’ huge and an evacuation of the campus, during prime class time, had to have been a nightmare.

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Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. UT sent out an emergency alert at 9:50 this morning urging all students, faculty and staff to “get as far away from campus as possible.”

    I realize they have take these treat seriously, but isn’t sending the entire student body to the middle of the Indian Ocean kinda overkill?

  2. Boyd says:

    UT is freakin’ huge…

    You betcha. It was plenty big at its original size of 40 acres. At 350 acres these days…well, let’s just say I’m glad I live and work in the northern stretches of Austin, almost in Round Rock.

  3. Gustopher says:

    @Stormy Dragon: They didn’t limit it to Earth. This declaration will lead to the greatest minds of Texas building space ships that will take them to the stars.

    Or, perhaps some will assume they meant it culturally, and end up hanging out in Paris.

    I hope the evacuation goes relatively smoothly, with just enough chaos and turmoil to be a good story for the kids to tell years from now (“We were all scared and frightened, and then nine months later, you came along…”).

  4. Michael says:

    Al Qeada does not warn you about the impending explosion. They just detonate the device. Hoax.

  5. matt says:

    @Boyd: Hey I drive by you occasionally 😛