Hiram and colleges in Texas, N.D., evacuated today for bomb threats

HIRAM (AP)

Hiram College officials have given the “all clear” and reopened the northeast Ohio school after a sweep found nothing suspicious following a bomb threat hours earlier.

College spokesman Tom Ford said this evening the campus community has been alerted that the campus is safe and is open again.

The college received an emailed bomb threat about 4 p.m. and ordered everyone on campus to evacuate. Ford said safety teams with bomb-sniffing dogs checked “room by room, building by building.”

Bomb threats also caused evacuations today at campuses in Texas and North Dakota.

Ford said he knows of no connection among the three evacuations, but authorities were working to determine whether the threats were related.

Thousands of people streamed off the three college campuses after the bomb threats prompted officials to issue the evacuation orders for the schools.

The campuses of the University of Texas at Austin and North Dakota State University in Fargo had been deemed safe by early afternoon,

The threat at the much-smaller Hiram College was issued hours later. Crews with bomb-sniffing dogs checked all buildings on the campus just northwest of Warren, where about 1,300 students are enrolled.

The threats on the much-larger campuses in Texas and North Dakota ended as false alarms after tens of thousands of people followed urgently worded evacuation orders, one of which some worried didn't come fast enough.

Both of those campuses emptied at quick but orderly paces Friday morning, though students acknowledged an air of confusion about what was going on.

The threats coming as violent protests outside U.S. embassies in the Middle East also stirred nervous tension among some students, and Texas officials acknowledged global events were taken into account.