UT officials address delayed bomb threat warning
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Business is back to usual at the University of Texas-Austin Friday evening, just hours after a bomb threat prompted a campus-wide evacuation.
Tens of thousands of University of Texas students spilled out of campus buildings Friday morning to wait in the rain—all wondering the extent of the bomb threat they had just learned about.
“It was bizarre,” freshman Ryan Simmons said. “You could tell something wasn’t right."
Officials reported receiving a call at 8:35 a.m. Friday morning from someone claiming to be with the terrorist network al Qaeda. The caller threatened bombs were scattered across campus, and would explode in 90 minutes.
“The first thing we do is evaluate the threat,” U.T. President Bill Powers said. “It’s easy to make a phone call. The threat, remember, was for danger in the future, in the 10 to 12 p.m. range.”
Students got word of the situation via sirens, text messages and social media at 9:50 a.m., nearly an hour and a half after the threat was made, and about 20 minutes before the bombs were said to explode.
"The message to the students was to get out of the buildings and away from the buildings. I think our students were safe during the entire incident," President Powers said.
Whether or not they cut it too close, school leaders say they always reevaluate the university's response to major incidents.