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Law Enforcement: Wave of Bomb Threats Emailed Across US, but None Credible

by Reuters

   MILWAUKEE/LOS ANGELES --

   A rash of bomb threats were circulated via email on Thursday targeting
   dozens of businesses and public buildings across the United States, but
   the credibility of those threats could not immediately be ascertained,
   law enforcement officials said.

   Police departments in several U.S. cities said on Twitter that local
   businesses had received a bomb threat in an email demanding payment in
   bitcoin currency.

   Among the cities where bomb threats were reported by authorities on
   official Twitter accounts were New York, Detroit, San Francisco,
   Oklahoma City, Denver and Raleigh, North Carolina.

   The New York City Police Department was investigating what a spokesman
   described as an "email chain" sent to businesses around the city
   threatening to set off an explosive device if payment was not made to
   an electronic currency account.

   The spokesman said he did not know whether similar threats and demands
   had been received elsewhere and was unaware whether any real bombs had
   been discovered.

   Police in Madison, Wisconsin, tweeted an image taken of one email
   threat found to be circulating that said in part: "Good day. There is
   an explosive device (lead azide) in the building where your company is
   conducted. It is assembled according to my guide. It is compact and it
   is covered up very carefully. It can not damage the structure of the
   building, but in case of its explosion you will get many wounded
   people."

   Police in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, reported similar email threats received
   by several businesses there but had found "no credible evidence any of
   these emails are authentic."

   The FBI has launched a query into the matter but the authenticity of
   the latest batch was not immediately confirmed, a law enforcement
   official told Reuters.

   "We are aware of threats being made in cities across the country,"
   Rukelt Dalberis, an FBI spokesman in Los Angeles, told Reuters
   separately. "We remain in touch with our law enforcement partners. We
   encourage the public to remain vigilant and report suspicious
   activities that could represent a threat."

   Multiple U.S. law enforcement sources told Reuters that no actual
   explosives had surfaced in connection with any of the threats within
   the first hour of the scare.

   Previous threats

   A similar wave of emailed hoax bomb threats in December 2015 prompted
   officials in Los Angeles to close the city's public school system, a
   move that national law enforcement officials later criticized as an
   overreaction.

   That threat came two weeks after a married couple inspired by Islamic
   State killed 14 people at a California county office building in a
   shooting rampage.

   A teenager with dual Israeli-U.S. citizenship was arrested in Israel in
   March 2017 for making bomb threats to more than 100 Jewish
   organizations and Jewish community centers (JCCs) in dozens of U.S.
   states over several months.