Bomb hoaxes hit Princeton, Ga. Capitol, Va. airport

John Riley | USA TODAY

Princeton University reopened Tuesday evening after a bomb hoax closed the Ivy League school for eight hours. It was the second time in two weeks that a New Jersey school was evacuated because of a threatening prank.

Other threats during the day prompted evacuations of the Richmond, Va., airport and the Georgia State Capitol.

No explosives were found at any location.

Princeton said in a statement that a caller had reported that "multiple bombs were placed throughout campus at unspecified locations." Campus, local, state and federal authorities searched the New Jersey campus with the help of bomb-sniffing dogs. The all clear was declared at 6:25 p.m. ET.

A posting on the Princeton website at 10:26 a.m. Tuesday directed all students and employees to go home and "do not return to campus for any reason until advised otherwise."

Regular classes have ended for the summer and commencement was last Tuesday, according to a tweet from the university. Most students left campus days or weeks ago.

The Ivy League school, located in central New Jersey about 50 miles southwest of New York City, is home to approximately 5,000 undergraduate students, 2,500 graduate students and 1,100 faculty. Its campus comprises 180 buildings on 500 acres. The Princeton area has about 30,000 residents.

Students who were on campus at the time of the evacuation order told The Daily Princetonian there was confusion over where students should go.

"After my roommate and I got the warning, we didn't know where to go. Which direction should we go?" Jimin Hong said. "My roommate told me to call Public Safety and ask them. This guy answered -- no help. He said, 'I don't know, ma'am' and it kind of pissed me off."

On May 30, Seton Hall University, in South Orange, N.J., was also evacuated and closed after someone posted on Facebook that bombs had been placed in several buildings.

The Princeton threat was one of several incidents on Tuesday:

--A bomb threat near the Georgia state Capitol in Atlanta forced the evacuation of five buildings housing the state attorney general's office and the state Supreme Court, WXIA-TV reported. Bomb-sniffing dogs did not find any explosives, and employees were allowed back inside around 11 a.m.

--A threatening phone call shortly after 6 a.m. prompted an evacuation at Virginia's Richmond International Airport. Flights were halted and canine units were brought in to sweep the terminals and the parking decks. Nothing was found, and by 9:45 a.m. ET the airport had reopened.

Contributing: Michael Winter