BELLEVILLE -- Investigators and bomb-sniffing police dogs from Scott Air Force Base cleared the Belleville campus of Southwestern Illinois Campus six hours after someone called in a bomb threat Friday morning.
The campus was found to be bomb-free Friday afternoon and classes and activities will resume today as normal, according to SWIC spokesman Mike Fleming.
Students were evacuated Friday morning after an anonymous bomb threat was called into 911 and received by St. Clair County dispatchers at 7:57 a.m., officials said.
SWIC security was immediately informed of the threat and a contingency plan to evacuate the campus was put into motion, according to Fleming. The campus was closed and classes canceled for the rest of the day Friday while security sealed off the entrances to the campus to prevent anyone from entering. Police and investigators searched the campus for an explosive device.
Bomb-sniffing dogs from the Military Working Dog Explosives Division at Scott Air Force Base, the Alton Police Canine Division and the St. Louis City Police Canine Division were brought in to search the buildings and campus and law enforcement personnel from SWIC Public Safety, the St. Clair County Sheriff's Department, Belleville Police Department, Illinois State Police, the Illinois Secretary of State Bomb Squad, St. Clair County Special Emergency Services, the St. Clair County Emergency Management Agency and the FBI assisted in the investigation and search of the campus.
The St. Clair County Sheriff's Department is handling the investigation of the threat. SWIC's other campus buildings -- in Granite City, Red Bud, and East St. Louis -- were not affected Friday, and classes were held as scheduled in those locations.
"(We) have no earthly idea (who called in the threat)," Fleming said. Fleming said he cannot remember any other time the college had received a bomb threat in the past.
Belleville Police said they had a suspect and were heading to an area in east Belleville from which they believed the bomb threat call originated.
Students were told to leave the premises by public safety officers, who came into classrooms. Students and staff were also notified via a public address system to evacuate the classrooms and campus immediately.
Student Ces White, of Fairview Heights, had just sat down in his biology class and the instructor was going through slides when the announcement came in over the intercom system.
"We barely heard it so the teacher went out into the hallway and checked," he said. "Everyone was like 'Is this for real? Is this really happening?' They didn't tell us what was going on, it was basically just a 'Hey, everyone get out.'
"I guess they figured everyone would find out what was going on later. My morning coffee hadn't even cooled down yet and I was already leaving."
White said the evacuation was fairly orderly as students and staff left the buildings, but there was a long wait getting out of the parking lots and off campus.
"There was a little bit of panic by just a few people in the hallways, but most were pretty calm and following instructions to get out of the building," he said.
Another student said his class received a little more information about what was going on and why the school was being evacuated.
"We were told there was a bomb threat and that we had to leave the grounds," student Joseph Nephew said.
Fleming said school officials had set up at the college's PSOP (Programs and Services for Older Persons) headquarters on Church Street in Belleville.
"It's business as best we can, business as usual," Fleming said.
The college sent out a SWIC alert to students' cell phones alerting them of the campus closure, posted on the SWIC website about the closure and sent out an email to all students and staff about the bomb threat and subsequent closure.
Another alert went out at 2 p.m. Friday informing students and staff the campus had been cleared by authorities and would be open as usual today.
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