Schools in the Maritimes Were Evacuated This Morning Due to a ‘Potential Threat’

Schools and colleges in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island have been evacuated following bomb threats Wednesday morning, but police are emphasizing there have been no injuries and "everyone is safe."

Ottawa RCMP received a bomb threat by fax at 9 AM Wednesday morning that said explosives had been planted at several PEI schools. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau assured Canadians Wednesday afternoon "that all of the schools' children and personnel are safe, and the situation is under control." No suspects have been identified and no arrests have been made, PEI police said during a press conference Wednesday. It's still unclear whether the threats in NS and PEI are in any way linked. All 60 schools on PEI have been evacuated due to the bomb threat, and the province's universities are also shutting down for the day as the schools are swept for potential explosives and weapons. "I think if we check all the schools and nothing suspicious is found, and given the nature of the threat, if nothing is found, I'll be satisfied that the actual threat is a hoax," PEI police spokesperson Kevin Baillie told reporters Wednesday. On the island, schools evacuated more than 19,000 students, moving them to safe areas where their parents picked them up. PEI police said they contacted school boards within 10 minutes of receiving the faxed bomb threat. Just picking up one of my kids. Lots of parents picking up kids following province-wide school evacuation #PEI pic.twitter.com/qxwo2R5SUj
— Teresa Wright (@GuardianTeresa) [September" class="redactor-linkify-object">https://twitter.com/GuardianTeresa/status/77860149…](<a href=) 21, 2016

There was some confusion about where the safe areas were, Baillie said, and authorities are looking at how they can better respond in the future.

The University of PEI closed for the day, followed by Holland College, which did the same.

The closures follow an anonymous bomb threat to two Nova Scotia Community College campuses in Halifax and Cape Breton, prompting the schools to evacuate. Cop cars blocked the entrance to the NSCC campus in Cape Breton and police carried assault rifles, according to a CBC reporter.

Meanwhile, Cape Breton Regional Police reported "a potential weapons complaint" at Sydney Academy at 8:35 AM A male was taken into custody, but later released, police said.

@HfxRegPolice have opened Barrington street, suspicious package was a cooler left over from construction last night #halifax @xpress_local pic.twitter.com/dr7RdFaUrj
— tim krochak (@real_timbophoto) September 21, 2016

Around 8 AM several reports of suspicious packages in downtown Halifax prompted police to shut down the streets while the Explosive Disposal Unit investigated, however the packages were later cleared — one was a cooler left by a construction crew, another was determined to be garbage — and the streets reopened to traffic.

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