Louisiana State evacuates following bomb threat

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Thousands of students, professors and workers were being evacuated from Louisiana State University's main campus Monday following a bomb threat, school officials said.

The LSU Police Department was investigating the threat, the university said in a short statement.

Students and staff were sent text messages and a message was posted on the campus website advising, "A bomb threat has been reported on the LSU campus. Please evacuate as calmly and quickly as possible. Check lsu.edu for updates."

Police did not provide further details, steering all questions to the university's public relations office, which didn't immediately return telephone calls seeking comment.

There are 30,000 students, professors and university employees located on the campus, but it was not clear how many were present at the time of the threat.

State police bomb technicians were on the scene, said Louisiana State Police Capt. Doug Cain. He said authorities were talking to their counterparts in Texas, North Dakota and Ohio to see if there were any similarities to threats universities in those states received Friday.

University officials in those states also evacuated their campuses, but police found no explosives.