Texas A&M reopens, but bomb investigation continues

Crowd at Texas A&M after a bomb threat Friday, Oct. 19, 2012. Crowd at Texas A&M after a bomb threat Friday, Oct. 19, 2012. Photo: . Photo: . Image 1 of / 12 Caption Close Texas A&M reopens, but bomb investigation continues 1 / 12 Back to Gallery

COLLEGE STATION — Officials at Texas A&M University say the campus has been reopened after everyone was ordered to evacuate following a bomb threat on Friday.

Authorities are continuing their investigation, however.

The school, about 100 miles northwest of Houston, was shut down on Friday for about five hours.

A&M Police Lt. Allan Baron told the Associated Press that officials were still searching some buildings late Friday afternoon, but no bombs had been found and people were being allowed to come back on campus to retrieve personal belongings and their cars.

Baron said buildings and areas with high student traffic, including the dining facilities and residence halls, had been cleared by police. He said he didn't know how many more buildings still needed to be searched.

The evacuation order was posted on the university's website Friday as a "Code Maroon" warning. It directed those on campus to evacuate by foot immediately and to not use a vehicle.

In a message posted at 1:38 p.m. on its website, the school said, "Do not attempt to come to campus until the university issues an ALL CLEAR notice. Off-campus transit service running outbound only. All off-campus routes will run from Church Street (in the heart of Northgate) and Anderson Street byA&M Consolidated Middle School."

The school canceled daytime classes. But evening activities on campus are set to go on as planned.

The bomb threat also would not prompt extra security for Saturday's football game between LSU and A&M.

In a text message to students at 12:58 p.m., university officials said, "Investigation continues. No additional information available. Continue to avoid campus."

Texas A&M spokesman Lane Stephenson said the school received a call about the bomb threat at about 11:30 a.m. He didn't immediately have any other information about the threat.

"Bomb threat received for campus in general. Evacuate campus by foot immediately. Do not use a vehicle," the campus tweeted and texted at 11:34 a.m.

At 12:22 p.m. the officials released the following instructions:



Please continue to evacuate by foot towards Church Street and Anderson Street. Transportation Services is re-routing buses to run off-campus routes only. Transportation Services will be picking up pedestrians on Church Street and Anderson Street and running normal off-campus routes. Specific locations to be identified shortly. Please continue to visit this website for updated information.

Austin Harris, 20, sophomore at Texas A&M majoring in Political Science had just left class when he received the text.

"It was like an ant mound, people got stepped on, they were just pouring out of the building."

There were buses that were filling up fast, leaving many to walk, but Harris was fortunate enough to squeeze on one. The student sitting next to him said the bomb was supposedly by Church Street which is over by north gate and is also where some students were told to walk to.

Officer Rhonda Seaton, a spokeswoman for College Station Police, told the Associated Press that her department was assisting with traffic control around campus but had no further details about the threat.

Drew Casey, a Houston sophomore, said he was about 10 minutes into a chemistry test when an announcement came over the loud speaker.

"It was something along the lines of, 'We have received a bomb threat. Evacuate immediately,' Casey said. "We all looked around, and the teacher said, 'Well, you heard the man.' "

The approximately 200 test takers got up and filed out of the Heldenfels classroom building, joining thousands of others leaving campus.

"It was a huge crowd of people," said Casey, who is studying engineering. The mood was more quiet acceptance than fear, he said. "We had no other choice."

Walking with a friend, he headed back to his off-campus apartment to await further instructions.

With classes and all other activities canceled, Casey said he would head to Houston, a weekend trip he had planned, anyway.

Lindsay Cochrum, a graduate student who works at student activities, learned about the evacuation from the university's internal emergency message system.

"A box flashed on my computer screen telling us to evacuate by foot... then we got a tweet" with more information, she said.

"No one was shocked per se ... it's fairly common to have bomb threats," Cochrum said, and she added that people were on their cellphones trying to let others know they were OK, but no one was panicking.

For more information, check emergency.tamu.edu.

The threat is the second in as many days at a Texas university. On Thursday, Texas State University received a bomb threat. The Tower and San Jacinto dorms were evacuated, but the campus was not closed and classes continued as scheduled.

Last month, telephoned bomb threats at the University of Texas at Austin, as well as ones made to campuses in North Dakota and Ohio prompted tens of thousands of people to evacuate. No bombs were found at any of those campuses.

-- The Associated Press contributed to this report.