GOVERNMENT AGENCY EVACUATED AFTER FALSE BOMB ALERT
Sargis Harutyunyan

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25.02.2010

Hundreds of employees of Armenia’s State Revenue Committee (SRC) were
evacuated on Thursday after a false bomb alert reported by the police.

Scores of security officers, rescue workers and firefighters were
rushed to the central SRC office in downtown Yerevan after an unknown
man called the police in the morning and claimed to have placed a bomb
there. According to a police statement, the caller said the bomb will
explode at 1 p.m. local time.

Security forces ordered the SRC staff to leave the building before
searching it with sniffer dogs and special equipment. They found no
explosive devices there and gave the all-clear by 3 p.m.

A police spokesman told RFE/RL afterwards that law-enforcements
authorities are now trying to identify and track down the anonymous
caller.

False bomb alerts have been periodically reported in Armenia since the
late 1990s. In 2007, for example, the police briefly evacuated several
government ministries, the Court of Cassation and even a public school
in Yerevan in the space of several months. Only one man is known to
have been arrested and prosecuted for deliberately making such claims.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress