( 4UMF NEWS ) Two Universities Evacuated Due To Bomb Threats:

Two major public universities in Texas and North Dakota were evacuated Friday after receiving a bomb threats, school officials and law enforcement said.

The University of Texas at Austin and North Dakota State University in Fargo both issued campus-wide evacuation orders around 9:00 am CT and sent out bomb experts and police to search buildings, libraries and residence halls.

It was not immediately clear if the bomb threats at the two schools, some 1200 miles apart, were related.

UT Austin, a sprawling campus home to 50,000 students, received a phone call to its main number Friday morning from a man who claimed he was with Al Qaida.

“He spoke with a Middle Eastern accent and said there were bombs placed around campus,” communications officer Rhonda Weldon told the Daily News.

More than two hours after the phoned-in threat, crews were “still emptying buildings,” she said. It was far too soon to say if the threats were unfounded.

Students scrambled away from campus as quickly as possible. Hundreds of people huddled near bus stops trying to heed the warning, which came via text message and in a stark warning on the school’s website demanding “all faculty, staff and visitors to “immediately evacuate ALL buildings and get as far away as possible.”

The news was also met with confusion.

“Some people were walking, some people were running. Some people were confused. Some thought it was a joke,” said one witness who was on campus when the warning came through.

Students, eager for more information, tweeted that they hoped the threat was a “scam.”
“I hate the thought that it could be real,” said Cyndi Rios.

In Fargo, NDSU students were “required” to leave campus by 10:15 a.m. local time because of a phoned-in bomb threat, said Anne Robinson-Paul, a communication coordinator.

It was not immediately known if the person who called in the threat also claimed to have terrorist ties, she said.

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