Bomb scare at Transbailkal regional government office turns out to be hoax

CHITA, September 13. /TASS/. A Trans-Baikal regional administration building in the city of Chita was evacuated on Wednesday following a bomb threat call that proved to be a hoax, a source in the governor’s press service told TASS.

"There were telephone calls, and personnel were evacuated. Experts inspected the building but found nothing, so the telephone calls seem to have been fake," the source said.

According to regional media, in Chita, people were also evacuated from the mayor’s office, a railway station, the airport and several shopping malls. Fire engines may still be seen near a couple of shopping malls, a TASS correspondent reported from the site.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the Saratov city administration was also evacuated, law enforcement officers are presently inspecting the building, Spokesman for the City Administration Vladimir Moiseyenko told TASS. However, the regional branches of the Interior Ministry and the Emergencies Ministry have not yet commented on the incident.

On Tuesday, people were evacuated from dozens of facilities, including administrative buildings, educational institutions, shopping malls and hostels, in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Magadan and Vladivostok.

According to media reports, on Wednesday, airports in Yakutsk and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, as well as several administrative buildings and social facilities in Khabarovsk, were evacuated because of anonymous bomb threats.