Terrorist threats at two US universities spur evacuations (UPDATE)
Thousands of students had just 90 minutes to evacuate after a bomb threat was made to the University of Texas.
Bomb threats at two American universities' campuses have been investigated and declared safe, after students were evacuated this morning following threatening telephone calls.
Students at The University's of Texas at Austin and North Dakota State University in Fargo were both evacuated from their respective campuses Friday morning, but were allowed to return to their campuses early the same afternoon, the Associated Press reported.
Classes were cancelled at UT Austine for the rest of the day, but the campus was reopened by noon.
"We are extremely confident that the campus is safe," UT President William Powers told reporters news conference.
NDSU was also reopened around 1 p.m., and classes resumed an hour later, according to the AP.
FBI officials are looking into a possible link between the two bomb threats made after receiving terror threats from a man claiming to be with Al Qaeda.
ABC News reported that police conducted a thorough investigation and search of all campuses but found no bombs.
In a statement published in the Huffington Post, university officials at UT said they received a call at 8:35 a.m "from a male with a middle eastern accent claiming to have placed bombs all over campus."
He said he was with Al Qaeda and these bombs would go off in 90 minutes.
"President Powers was notified and it was decided to evacuate all of the buildings out of an abundance of caution," according to The Statesman.
The bomb threats were taken seriously, particularly in light of a U.S. intelligence bulletin warning yesterday that the violent outrage aimed at U.S. embassies might spread to America.
USA Today said North Dakota State University President Dean Bresciani said 20,000 people were evacuated from his school's main and downtown campuses in Fargo after a "threat of an explosive device" came in about 9:45 a.m., according to the AP.
Students were notified to get as far away from campus buildings as possible.
Threats were also made to Valparaiso University in Indiana today, however officials said the threats were made via graffiti messages and were not specifically "bomb threats."
FBI officials said they did not yet know if the threats among the universities were connected.
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