Officials issued an all-clear Tuesday morning for the public to use the Bryan Center upon completing a bomb threat investigation.
Police searched the Bryan Center Tuesday morning after an anonymous call made to Durham Police Department said there was a bomb in the building. The call came to Durham police shortly after 7 a.m., Kammie Michael, DPD public information officer wrote in an email Tuesday.
First responders addressed the situation in a timely manner, Kyle Cavanaugh, emergency coordinator for the University, wrote in an email Tuesday.
DUPD Chief John Dailey referred inquires to Cavanaugh.
Some employees, but no students were inside the Bryan Center, and construction workers were in the vicinity, Cavanaugh added. The building and surrounding work zones was evacuated, with a perimeter established.
A DukeAlert issued at approximately 7:45 a.m. Tuesday noted that a search was in progress.
The Duke University Police Department was the lead agency on the search, with assistance by Durham police and the bomb squad of the Durham County Sheriff's Office, Michael noted.
A search by police dogs took approximately 1.5 hours to completely cover all floors of the building before the area was declared all clear at approximately 9:15 a.m.
Details of the call are not yet available. A criminal investigation is currently underway, Cavanaugh said. There was no indication that the call was connected to the blasts that occurred Monday in Boston.
This incident marks the second time in less than two years that a bomb threat in the Bryan Center was found to be false. In October 2011, McDonald's employee Renaldo Webbe, a 20-year-old man from Durham, was charged with two felonies after police investigated a phone call that claimed there were three bombs in the Bryan Center.
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