Princeton University buildings given the all-clear after school receives bomb threats Saturday morning (updated)

Princeton University received bomb threats Saturday morning and evacuated four buildings — Nassau Hall, Firestone Library, the Princeton University Art Museum, and the Princeton University Chapel. Law enforcement personnel searched the buildings and issued an all-clear alert just after 1 p.m. letting staff and students know it was safe to return to the buildings.

The Princeton University Department of Public Safety issued an email alert and a robocall to students, faculty, and staff members just after 11 a.m. on Saturday alerting them of the bomb threats.

University officials had urged people to avoid traveling to the area if they were not on campus and to remain away from the area until law enforcement personnel searched the buildings. People on campus were told to avoid using campus phones unless the issue was urgent so that officials could use the phone system to deliver updates about the situation.

The bomb threats come just a day after Princeton University was in the national news for being the subject of a Trump administration Department of Education investigation. Area schools, universities, and shopping malls have received bogus bomb threats and other fake swatting calls in the past that are hard to trace because of the computer technology used to make the calls.

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Krystal Knapp is the founding editor of Planet Princeton. Follow her on Twitter @krystalknapp. She can be reached via email at editor AT planetprinceton.com. Send all letters to the editor and press releases to that email address.