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St. Petersburg courts hit with wave of bomb threat calls

There are a total of 22 district courts in St. Petersburg

ST. PETERSBURG, November 29. /TASS/. Numerous St. Petersburg courts are being cleared out in an evacuation due to a reported bomb threat received on Friday afternoon, the joint press service of the city courts told journalists.

"The Primorsky, Vyborgsky, Nevsky, Petrodvortsovy, Krasnogvardeisky, Kolpinsky, Vasileostrovsky and Dzerzhinsky District Courts are being evacuated," the press service said.

There are a total of 22 district courts in St. Petersburg.

An anonymous bomb call triggered the urgent measures on Friday.

The St. Petersburg City Court received a ransom order by e-mail on Thursday over a hidden bomb. The perpetrators demanded that 120 million rubles ($1.8 mln) be transferred in bitcoins to a digital wallet. The report also noted that a certain Konstantin Malofeyev had to return this debt in bitcoins.

The First Western District Military Court also received similar reports, where there was a hearing on the arguments in the April 2017 subway terror attack case. In addition, the Moscow District Court of St. Petersburg, Krasnogvardeisky, Frunzensky, Pushkinsky, Kirovsky and Smolninsky District Courts of the city and the St. Petersburg Garrison Military Court received such threats as well. An investigation that followed, found that the bomb scare was hoax and no dangerous objects were found.

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