Victoria police say they have a few leads in a bomb threat that forced the evacuation and lockdown of the Victoria courthouse on Tuesday.
“But this is all in the early stages of investigation,” said Acting Staff Sgt. Mike Darling. “We’ll have to see where the evidence leads us.”
A man called the B.C. Sheriff Service at 3:45 p.m. saying a bomb was going to blow up in about 20 minutes, Darling said. The sheriffs phoned Victoria police just after 4 p.m., asking for assistance.
“The sheriffs acted very promptly in evacuating and locking down the courthouse,” Darling said. Eight prisoners who were in custody at the courthouse were transported to Victoria police cells, he said.
Police arrived and set up an exterior perimeter and nearby roads were closed. Two police dog handlers assisted sheriffs with an interior security sweep.
Nothing suspicious was located in any of the publicly accessible areas, Darling said.
Victoria police gave the all clear just before 5:30 p.m.
Meanwhile, court clerks, registry staff, librarians and jurors were whisked out of the building. Some waited in the cold, wrapped in blankets in the park outside Christ Church Cathedral. Others waited in the warmth of the church.
Most were unable to go home because their coats and keys had been left in their offices.
Further sweeps of the secure areas of the building — including the court registry, judges’ chambers and sheriffs cells — were planned, but it’s not believed anyone gained unauthorized access in those areas, Darling said.
The hoax had a big impact on a lot of people. “This kind of incident creates significant disruption any time it’s in a public building of a higher profile, like a courthouse,” Darling said. “Obviously, there was tremendous disruption to everything that was going on here today and also to the general public trying to get home at the end of the day.”
