The Veranda Mall, a shopping center located next to Bucharest’s Obor market, was evacuated on Thursday after a bomb threat.

A call at the emergency number 112 announced that a bomb had been placed within the mall, the Romanian Intelligence Service – SRI announced. SRI’s bomb squad and the police went to the mall and evacuated it while looking for the bomb.

Update: After a search operation that lasted more than two hours, SRI announced that the alert was false.

Similar bomb threats were recorded at public objectives in Bucharest in the past but they all proved to be false.

Globalworth Tower, the second biggest office building in Bucharest, five-star hotel Sheraton and the American International School of Bucharest were also targeted by prank bomb alerts in the past. A similar call disrupted the activity of the biggest Romanian courier firm in October 2019.

editor@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Veranda Mall Facebook page)