Lethbridge Police Inspector Jason Dobirstein

By Lara Fominoff and David Opinko

Lethbridge Police investigate source of bomb threat believed to be a hoax

Jan 28, 2020 | 4:53 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Thousands of students and staff were evacuated from the Lethbridge College campus just before 1:00 pm on Tuesday, January 28.

Inspector Jason Dobirstein with Lethbridge Police Service (LPS) says an email was sent to the college’s admissions account.

It reportedly contained a bomb threat that mentioned the date Wednesday, January 29.

“Through our investigation, we determined that, potentially, the email actually came from overseas and there’s no credible threat that there’s a bomb in the college.”

As a precaution, Vice President of Corporate Services with Lethbridge College Simon Griffiths told media that they immediately phoned 911 and gathered the executive team before making the decision to evacuate the school.

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“The evacuation went really well. It took a number of minutes to do. We have got a college-wide telephone system that we are able to broadcast this type of message through to the entire college community so everyone hears it at the same time.”

Students who live on campus were sent to the Servus Sports Centre while officers investigated the source of the threat. Students were allowed to return to their residences at 3:00 p.m.

Dobirstein believes the email might have come from somewhere in the U.K., although they cannot confirm that at this time.

This, he says, makes conducting an investigation difficult, but they will continue to work on the file either way.

The matter might be investigated as a potential cybercrime.

Dobirstein is confident that there is no active threat to the Lethbridge College campus or anyone attending it, so there will be no police presence there for now.

The sudden evacuation lead to long traffic lines as staff and students rushed to leave the facility. For future incidents, Griffiths hopes to work with police on conducting traffic control to ensure everyone can evacuate promptly.

The college will be open on Wednesday and Griffiths says it will be “business as usual.”