Bomb threats at University of Texas, North Dakota State University

Bomb threats at the University of Texas and North Dakota State University have resulted in a lot of chaos and tension among students. Both universities had to be evacuated soon after these bomb threats were made. The University of Texas was evacuated first and later North Dakota State University also issued an evacuation notice for all its staff and students.

So far, it hasn’t been confirmed whether the threats were linked, but they did happen around the same time. North Dakota State University was eventually reopened after an investigation.

University of Texas President Bill Powers later issued a statement and confirmed that he was "extremely confident that the campus is safe." He explained why it was important to evacuate the premises, saying, “It got to the point where we thought the prudent thing to do was to clear all buildings,” according to tusconnewsnow.com. He further said that social media, the official website and text messages helped clear the university.

The University of Texas has about 51,000 students and 24,000 staff and faculty. A telephone call from an unidentified man with a Middle Eastern accent was received. The unidentified person claimed to have placed bombs on campus, according to Gary Susswein, the official spokesman for the university. The spokesperson also said that the unidentified person claimed that he was associated with al-Qaida and said the bombs would go off in about 90 minutes. The call was received at 8:35 a.m.

Soon after the call, an emergency alert was posted on the school’s website. It read, "Immediately evacuate ALL buildings and get as far away as possible. More information to come."

North Dakota State University did not give away details about the bomb threat it received, but its management also posted an evacuation notice on its website around the same time.

Students were seen running around in frenzy at the University of Texas. A few were even traumatized after hearing about the bomb scare. Even though the management did provide clearance to its students and the staff, classes were canceled for the day.

A third school, Indiana's Valparaiso University, a Lutheran college located an hour east of Chicago, also issued a security warning on Friday. Here an unspecific threat was made to the campus via a graffiti message that warned about a criminal activity that would be carried out during the chapel break period on Friday.

It’s good to hear that all the students and staff are safe at all these universities and taking precautionary security measures to avoid such threats in future.