Cornell, Columbia and Brown universities warned students to evacuate campus buildings on Sunday after reports of bombs on campus, officials said, although the threats to all three later were deemed not credible, according to police officials.
At Columbia University, officials issued a campuswide emergency alert about 2:30 p.m. Sunday after the school received bomb threats, the university account tweeted. Columbia University asked people to “avoid the area until further notice” and said New York City police were investigating. The university’s buildings were reopened Sunday evening after the threat was deemed “not credible” by NYPD, the school said in a tweet.
At Brown University in Providence, R.I., police were investigating “multiple buildings on campus involving a bomb threat,” according to the Brown Daily Herald, an independent student newspaper. After comprehensive searches by both Brown University and Providence Police officers, a Brown spokesman said, the university’s Department of Public Safety issued an all-clear for the campus at 5:45 p.m., with university operations resuming as normal.
Spokesman Brian Clark confirmed that the university received the bomb threat by phone. Its department of public safety then evacuated several buildings near the university’s college green, he said. Officers were at the scene late Sunday afternoon investigating with local law enforcement.
The threats at all three schools were still under investigation late Sunday afternoon, and it was not immediately clear whether they were connected.
The reports come after a bomb threat was reported at multiple buildings on Yale University’s campus Friday, though officials issued an all-clear five hours later. Similar threats at Ohio University’s Athens campus and Miami University in Ohio last week were deemed not credible, officials said.