Terror threat

Bomb Threats Across Russia Prompt Mass Evacuations

Dozens of buildings including schools and malls in more than 12 Russian cities have been evacuated since Sunday after authorities received a series of anonymous bomb threats, the Interfax news agency reports. 

Interfax cited a law enforcement official in Chelyabinsk as saying that the evacuations were prompted by bomb scares across cities in Russia. "There's reason to assume this was all organized abroad," the official was cited as saying.

The wave of evacuations began in Omsk early on Sunday, when law enforcement cleared several cinemas, schools, malls and City Hall, Interfax reports. 

That evening, eleven buildings were also cleared in Ryazan after authorities received phone calls warning a bomb had been planted in several malls. On Monday, similar actions were taken in Chelyabinsk and Kopeisk, Ufa and Stavropol, which received as many as 42 bomb scares, Interfax reports.