Multiple bomb threats hit GTA
Police in region respond to reports as cities across Canada, U.S. all hoaxed
Police in the GTA responded to multiple bomb threats across the region Thursday, including one near King Subway Station that evacuated the station. A number of bomb threats were also made in cities across North America.
Subway service was initially suspended between the BloorYonge and Union stations, but resumed.
Toronto police said “several” bomb threats were made across the city, but did not disclose locations.
Peel police said they received several threats, directed at businesses and demanding payments in bitcoin to reveal the location of the bombs.
“There’s no legitimacy to them,” Peel police spokesperson Sarah Patton said. “They’re frauds.”
Investigators are asking anyone with information to contact police.
In Calgary, police reported responding to multiple bomb threats, and said similar threats are being received across North America.
Toronto police are working with forces in other Canadian cities that have also received threats, spokesperson Allyson Douglas-Cook said. Douglas- Cook said there was nothing to suggest that the threats are credible, but police will continue to treat them as such.
Police in New York said the threats they received were “sent electronically” to places across the city, and they linked these messages to the others reported across the country.
As word of the threatening messages spread Thursday, the FBI said in a statement that it was “aware of the recent bomb threats made in cities around the country, and we remain in touch with our law enforcement partners to provide assistance. As always, we encourage the public to remain vigilant and to promptly report suspicious activities which could represent a threat to public safety.”
Other law enforcement agencies and academic institutions echoed the message from the New York police.
A spokesperson for the Chicago police said that city had received threats similar to the others received but noted that there was “no elevated threat level” there.
In the District of Columbia, police said they responded to a dozen bomb threats by Thursday afternoon, all made by email and linked to similar threats nationwide.
All the threats in the District turned out to be false, a D.C. police spokesperson said. These calls, most of which came between 2:30 and 3:30 p.m., forced the shutdown of multiple streets and evacuations of buildings.
The San Francisco police said they responded to threats received at about 10 a.m. local time across the city, noting that there were “similar threats” in “several other cities across the United States.”