St. Petersburg courts undergo evacuations due to renewed bomb threats
The current wave of bomb threat messages began two weeks ago, with a bomb ransom e-mail being sent to the St. Petersburg City Court
ST. PETERSBURG, December 9. /TASS/. St. Petersburg courts received bomb threat reports on Monday morning, the joint press service of the city courts told journalists. The courts are being cleared out.
"The Oktyabrsky, Petrodvortsovy, Vyborgsky, Sestroretsky, Nevsky and Primorsky district courts are being evacuated," the report says.
According to the press service, the author of the letter also warned of the threat of an explosion at the Dostoyevskaya, Pushkinskaya and Sennaya Ploshchad subway stations, at military hospitals and hospitals across the city.
This current wave of bomb threat messages began two weeks ago, with a bomb ransom e-mail being sent to the St. Petersburg City Court. The perpetrators demanded that 120 million rubles ($1.8 mln) be transferred in bitcoins to a digital wallet. Other city courts, ranging from district courts and to military ones, have received similar letters. All of them have turned out to be false alarms.
Last week, the emergency response services also carried out security sweeps of subway stations, shopping malls, centers and schools. No dangerous objects were found.