Police across Canada probe bomb threats

TORONTO — Police forces in cities across Canada investigated bomb threats on Thursday as authorities in the U.S. said similar threats sent to dozens of locations appeared to be a hoax.

Police departments in Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Ottawa and Winnipeg, as well as RCMP detachments in B.C. and Manitoba, investigated multiple threats.

One busy subway station in downtown Toronto was briefly evacuated Thursday afternoon due to a threat received in the area, but King Station was up and running again within hours.

A spokesman for Toronto police said it wasn’t clear whether that threat, or any of “at least 10” received across the city, were related to those in other locations.

In Montreal, police responded to five emailed bomb threats received by businesses Thursday afternoon.

Agent Jean-Pierre Brabant, a police spokesman, said the emails were the same as those received elsewhere in North America. They warned in imperfect English that unless $20,000 in Bitcoin was paid, a bomb would go off.

“It appears to be a hoax, but we are not taking any chances,” Brabant said.

The Calgary Police Service said in a statement that the threats received there were “not believed to be credible,” but officers were taking precautions nonetheless.

Police in Edmonton issued a similar statement, saying they had received several reports of bomb threats emailed to local businesses.

In the U.S., a wave of bomb threats emailed to hundreds of schools, businesses and government buildings triggered searches, evacuations and fear. However, there were no signs of explosives, and authorities said the scare appeared to be a crude extortion attempt.

Law enforcement agencies across the U.S. dismissed the threats, saying they were meant to cause disruption and trick recipients into sending money.