Federal officials are investigating a string of bomb threats against more than a dozen Alabama colleges and universities earlier this week.
“We are aware of the threats and are working jointly with our state, local, and federal partners. The FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force is the lead on the investigation,” the Department of Justice said in a statement to WBRC.
Thirteen institutions, including Auburn University and a campus of the University of Alabama, got some kind of bomb threat on Wednesday, none of which proved to be credible.
“All collegiate schools that received threats within Alabama on Wednesday, July 27, have been cleared and classes have been deemed safe to resume,” according to the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. “No further details are available at this time.”
The ALEA added that its “State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) and the Alabama Fusion Center (AFC), in-conjunction with local and federal partners, are currently monitoring the situation to ensure the safety of all students, faculty and staff.”
The threats prompted evacuations across the state, at schools including Enterprise State, the University of South Alabama, and the University of Alabama’s Huntsville campus.
Universities across Tennessee were also the subject of numerous false bomb threats on Wednesday, and schools in Mississippi experienced a similar wave of threats the following day.
“While incidents of this nature are the subject of frequent MSU Crisis Action Team training and drills, I am extremely grateful for the prompt and professional actions of MSU’s first responders today,” Mississippi State University President Mark E Keenum said in a statement. “They work hard every day to keep our students, faculty, staff and visitors safe, and I am proud of them.”
Public safety officials are wondering whether the threats are connected to a similar wave of 57 threats called in against churches and historically Black colleges and universities in January and February.
"There have been a lot of these bomb threats nationwide," Captain Milton Houseman, commander of Biloxi Police Department’s Bomb Squad, told the Jackson, Mississippi-based Clarion-Ledger newspaper. "There is some spoof calling going out. There were at least nine in the state of Mississippi that I am aware of."
