MANAGEMENT at businesses faced with bomb threats must do everything to ensure the safety of employees and other occupants, and should ensure buildings are
evacuated in the quickest possible time.
Additionally, under no circumstances should people return to evacuated buildings without the all-clear from police or emergency services personnel.
Acting police public relations officer, Station Sergeant David Welch, told the DAILY NATION that in bomb threat situations, evacuation should be done at a safe distance upwind from the identified danger area.
Welch said note should be taken of suspicious packages on premises but should not be tampered with under any circumstances. He said people receiving threats over the phone should take note of as much information as possible. This, he added, included the location of the bomb, its appearance and time of detonation.
He added note should be taken of background noises, and the tone and speech patterns of the caller.
The advice came in the wake of recent bomb explosions in London and Trinidad and Tobago, and of at least three bomb threats to businesses in Bridgetown over the past 48 hours. In one reported instance, employees were given the all-clear by a security guard to re-enter a building without the go-ahead from police.
Welch acknowledged that businesses sometimes received "crank calls", but said all bomb threats still had to be taken seriously. He said the liability for the safety of employees and other people using a specific building was on the management/landlord, whether they thought it was a hoax or not.
He stressed that making threats to life, whether by telephone, letter, or in
person, was a criminal offence. He said responding to a bomb hoax was a waste of police time – another offence.
Meanwhile, another senior officer told the DAILY NATION yesterday that bomb threats were often made to the Magistrates and Supreme Courts as well as a number of schools.
He explained, however, the courts were all checked before each sitting and declared "sterile" and then manned by police, thus negating the possibility of such attack.
He noted some students who were unprepared for examinations or simply did not want to attend school, sometimes called in bomb threats.
He said at least one person had already been arrested for a bomb hoax.
