Chaos as bomb threats hit city
2007-01-30 18:08
Nelspruit - Police have called on businesses to install caller identification systems after a spate of hoax bomb threats in the town.
No less than six hoax calls have been reported at local businesses in the past month, four of them since Friday, said local police spokesperson Dawie Pretorius on Tuesday.
In each case the affected premises had to be evacuated until bomb disposal experts declared them safe.
Two hoax calls were made on Saturday - at Shoprite Checkers in the Riverside Mall and at the Village Spar.
On Friday the Advanced Technology Training Institute received two bomb scares, and the building housing the college had to be evacuated twice.
Police evacuate centre
The hoaxes sparked confusion. A member of the public informed the police that a nearby Nedbank centre had received a bomb threat too, but this turned out to be incorrect.
To be safe, police evacuated the Nedbank centre anyway.
Pretorius said the Village Spar had been the target of another false bomb scare in early January. A hoax was also reported at a local Pick 'n Pay outlet on January 11.
"Different people are calling in so we don't know if (the hoaxes) are linked," said Pretorius. "Business is being lost and we also have to take active members away from other areas or crime scenes. We view these hoaxes in a serious light."
He warned that the culprits face between three and 15 years in jail without a fine.
Pretorius advised local businesses to use services such as Telkom's IdentiCall, which shows the caller's number on a display unit or CLI telephone.
However, clever hoax callers will know how to withhold their numbers.