KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A robot that detects bombs and explosive materials was brought to City Hall Tuesday morning after a bomb threat prompted security staff to evacuate the building. The building has been cleared of a threat according to the city’s communications office and is scheduled to reopen at 2:45 p.m.
FOX 4’s Katie Ferrell reported that the robot ‘disrupted’ a suspicious package outside of City Hall around 10:45 a.m. Tuesday. Police continued to investigate the area to determine if the bomb threat was viable, people had been evacuated from the building around 8:30 a.m.
Chris Hernandez, Deputy Communications Director for the city of Kansas City, Mo., said at the time of the evacuation about 600-plus people were in the building.
“The call came in this morning to police on their non-emergency line saying that a bomb had been placed inside the building yesterday at 2:30,” he said. “As a precaution our security staff decided to go ahead and evacuate the building.”
Hernandez said the evacuation went smoothly, likely due to a drill employees recently had.
“We had a fire drill at City Hall on Oct. 11 — barely a month ago, so everyone knew what to do,” he said.
Hernandez said employees were at “safe places” around City Hall as they waited for police to sweep the building and give the all-clear before returning to work.
Captain Tye Grant with the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department said canines were used to help clear the building. Grant said police are also viewing surveillance video to determine if there was any suspicious activity in or around the building in previous days.
At the time of the evacuation, FOX 4’s Katie Ferrell was at City Hall reporting on a new airport proposal meeting. That meeting was cut short due to the evacuation. Hernandez said there is no indication at this time the bomb threat was related to the public airport meeting.
Watch FOX 4’s Katie Ferrell’s earlier report: