SYDNEY, January 29. /TASS/. Students of several schools across the Australian cities of Sydney and Melbourne were evacuated on Friday morning after a series of phone bomb threats, which sparked police search operations.

A police spokesman from Australia’s New South Wales state said that the investigation into the matter is currently underway and bomb threats by telephone is a serious crime in the country so everything possible will be done to detain a suspect behind the chain of phone calls.

According to local media, all received calls about the bombs in schools were "automated" and they were deemed as hoaxes by late afternoon, when evacuated students were allowed back to their classes.