Students and staff were evacuated from the Student Center around 3 p.m. Thursday after an employee received a phone call warning that there was a bomb in the building.
Those evacuated were told to stand across the street from the building as both Philadelphia and Temple police cleared the building. The Philadelphia Police brought two bomb-sniffing dogs to conduct a search of the Student Center. K-9 Unit Officer Jim Zimmerman said the search focused on the basement and food-court levels of the building.
“Any threat we take as a real threat,” Zimmerman said of living in a post-Sept. 11, 2001, world. “You can’t take anything for granted.”
After the search was complete around 4 p.m., the students and staff were allowed to re-enter the building. No bomb was found.
After the threat was called in, officials worked quickly to empty the Student Center.
Temple Police went room to room, ordering the building’s occupants to leave.
Students and staff who were in the food court were given notice of the evacuation by being tapped on the shoulder.
One student, junior Kimberly Hendrix, said she had just finished eating and was about to exit the Student Center when she was told, “We need you to evacuate the building.”
Hendrix said being tapped on the shoulder was a comforting and less-alarming approach to inform students of the bomb threat.
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