No Explosives Found After Bomb Threats At MIT And BU On Thursday

CAMBRIDGE, MA —School and local authorities have said they have found no evidence of explosives after bomb threats were phoned in Thursday evening to Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Boston University.

Similar threats were received on the same day at New York University and University of Southern California, causing evacuations at those schools, according to media outlets in New York and Los Angeles. The New York Post reported that bomb threats, proven to be fake, were delivered to Columbia University, Brown and Cornell on Sunday.

The threats in Boston did force the evacuation of MIT's Building 54 (Green Building) Thursday evening, according to a social media post by MIT Emergency Management at 5:30 p.m.

The Cambridge Police Department later said it was working in collaboration with MIT police and officials, and operating out of an abundance of caution and thoroughly inspecting the campus.

Just after 7 p.m., the MIT Emergency Management tweeted that: "After a thorough search, police have determined there is no threat to Building 54 (Green Building) and the building had been reopened."

The Boston University Police Department said Friday it had determined threats phoned in to that school a day earlier were hoaxes, according to the university.

BUPD Deputy Chief Robert Molloy confirmed Friday that a threat had been phoned to his office at 6:46 p.m. Thursday.

"The caller specified several BU schools where the devices were, but did not indicate addresses," Molloy said.

The university said the BUPD and Boston Police Department searched with police dogs at all the schools named by the caller, but found no explosives.

"While these calls are difficult to investigate and identify the caller, BU Police will be working with both Boston Police and federal authorities in this investigation," Molloy said.

The chief said the Boston Police Regional Intelligence Center was notified of the threat, and the Boston Globe reported that the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives may be investigating connections between this week's most recent threats and the earlier Ivy League threats.

According to the New York Post, the threats at NYU were leveled against the Stern School of Business, Center for Neural Science and Hebrew Union College, which the school reported on social media at about 7:24 p.m. Tuesday.

The buildings were evacuated. But later in the night, the school tweeted that the New York Police Department had concluded its investigation of the threats received, and issued an all clear.

The Los Angeles Times, reported that USC was forced to evacuate Grace Ford Salvatori Hall, Sample Hall and Wallis Annenberg Hall shortly after the university received bomb threats there on Thursday, which were revealed by the school at around 4:30 p.m. Pacific time.

At around 5 p.m. Pacific, the university reported that officers had declared the buildings safe and that normal business had resumed, according to the LA Times.