This is just coming in from Austin:
Officials with the University of Texas have issued an evacuation order for all buildings.
According to officials, the evacuation order is due to a bomb threat from a male claiming to be with with al-Qaeda.
Officials urge everyone to evacuate all buildings and get as far away as possible.
More information to come.
This is from the
Austin Statesman:
At 8:35 a.m. the university received a call 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.
Additionally, it appears
a similar threat has been sent to North Dakota State University, which is being evacuated:
NDSU is requiring all employees and students to leave campus by 10:15 a.m. This includes residence hall students, who, if necessary, should walk to locations off campus. This also includes the downtown buildings and agricultural facilities.
NDSU received a bomb threat, prompting this evacuation. Updates will follow
Updates will follow after the break below.
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Update 1:49 EST
North Dakota State University police reopened the Fargo campus at 1 p.m., with classes to resume at 2 p.m., the school announced.
Campus officials said the threat against the university was general, not specific, prompting all school properties - and 20,000 people - to be evacuated, according to Inforum.com, a news website serving Fargo.
University police have been in contact with officials in Austin but said they had no information connecting the two incidents, Inforum reported, adding that two other bomb threats this week were reported at Hector International Airport in Fargo and at the Grand Forks airport.
On UT’s campus, all dining halls will open at 1 p.m., except at Kinsolving and the Littlefield Patio Cafe, according to an official with the division of housing and food services. A concert at the Cactus Cafe tonight will go ahead as planned, an official said.
Update 1:40 EST
At a press conference a little after noon on campus,UT President Bill Powers said that “We’re extremely confident that the campus is safe. We are allowing people to go back into buildings.”
Powers spoke at the AT&T Executive Education and Conference Center with Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell, City Manager Marc Ott and Robert Dahlstrom, UT Austin’s chief of police.
Powers said an unspecified threat came into the university’s main line about 8:30 a.m. and that university officials then evaluated the threat with local and federal agencies.
“It got to the point where we thought the prudent thing to do was to clear all buildings,” Powers said.
The word to evacuate was given through social media, online and through texts, Powers said.
Update 12:50 EST
University officials just posted to Twitter: “All activities except classes will resume at 5 p.m. Buildings may be reentered at noon. Today’s classes are cancelled.”
Update 12:03 EST
Heres the live feed to KVUE, thanks to Lisa Lockwood.
Update 11:51 EST:
Update 11:25 EST:
University of Texas officials just sent a post on Twitter that said, “Buildings being checked/cleared. Stay away from buildings. No decision on afternoon classes/activities. Next update at 11:45am.”