Oct. 09--Police were searching Northern Illinois University's main campus in DeKalb Thursday evening following what officials believed to be one of several "bogus" bomb threats called in to universities and colleges, officials said.
Students and faculty were told to evacuate all campus buildings and gather at the campus's main sports arena after a bomb threat, according to alerts on the university's website.
"At this time, the threat appears to be a hoax and one of a series of bogus bomb threats called into a number of colleges and universities across the region," the university said in a statement before 9 p.m. Thursday. "However, to ensure the safety of students, police are conducting a building-by-building search before allowing anyone back into buildings."
Not long after the threat was received about 6 p.m., police sent out an alert notifying students that the university had received a bomb threat and warning that "All buildings need to be evacuated immediately. Occupants need to stay beyond 500 feet of campus buildings."
The alert was followed just before 7 p.m. by a notice that all classes and events were canceled and students and staff should report to the NIU Convocation Center. An alert sent at 7:08 p.m. warned that all NIU branch campuses also should be evacuated, and said that students and staff could either report to the arena in DeKalb or go home.
By a little before 8 p.m., the arena was declared safe and a little after 8 p.m., students were again told they could go to the arena, where an 8:30 p.m. basketball game was expected to be played as scheduled.
In addition to its main DeKalb campus, NIU has campuses in Rockford, Hoffman Estates and Naperville. All those campuses were closed until they could be searched, according to the statement.
Earlier Thursday evening, about 50 students at DePaul University's O'Hare campus were briefly evacuated when the university received a bomb threat, but nothing was found when police checked the building and classes were allowed to resume, a university spokeswoman said.
Check back for updates.
