Several schools in Washington DC on lockdown after 200 bomb threat emails

Several schools in Washington DC were shut down after receiving hundreds of bomb threat emails on January 10 morning.

According to reports, around 200 emails were sent to several prominent schools in the US capital, prompting the authorities to announce a lockdown.

The Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) immediately responded and announced widespread lockdowns.

In a statement, the MPD assured the people that they are coordinating with DC Public and Charter schools to ensure the safety of students and staff.

"MPD is currently investigating a bomb threat that was emailed to numerous schools in DC just before 11 a.m. MPD is coordinating with DC Public and Charter schools to ensure the safety of students and staff. At this time MPD has no information to corroborate the threat," it said.

It further said it is working diligently to trace the origin of the emails.

The authorities of another school, the College of the Holy Cross, in Massachusetts, said on X that students were being evacuated this afternoon following the bomb threat mails.

"Buildings are currently being evacuated and searched. Early assessment suggests threat risk is low," officials wrote.
"The Worcester and State Police, and the Fire Department are on site."

It comes a week after various government officials across 13 US states received bomb threat emails, causing a short disruption of daily operations and prompting the evacuations of a few state capitals.

FBI officials conducted a sweep of the government buildings in each state only to discover no explosives, declaring it nothing more than a hoax.

“The FBI takes hoax threats very seriously because it puts innocent people at risk,” it said in a statement.

The frightening emails were primarily sent to state secretaries, so when Assistant Secretary of State Jennifer Scutchfield received the message in her inbox, she swiftly dialed the FBI and local police.