John W. MacLeod Elementary evacuated after bomb threat
Posted May 27, 2015 11:18:31 AM.
Last Updated May 27, 2015 12:10:49 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
John W. MacLeod Elementary School on Purcells Cove Road has been evacuated after an apparent bomb threat.
Police have Purcells Cove Road between Williams Lake Road & Colindale Street closed to all traffic while they investigate.
Halifax Regional Police told News 95.7 the call came into the school just after 10:45 a.m. and officials immediately began getting students out of the facility.
Halifax Regional School Board says all students are safe.
Residents across the street from the school have been asked to stay inside and away from the front of their houses, or to leave the area.
“We have our bomb squad, a number of K9 units and a large presence of officers at the scene right now looking for anything suspicious,” HRP spokesperson Pierre Bourdages told The Rick Howe Show.
Bourdages said the investigation will go on for as long as it takes.
“We’ll have to go through that school with a fine-tooth comb,” he said. “It will take time, and once the school is deemed safe, we’ll turn it back over to the school board.”
The school board says students were brought to nearby Fleming Tower Elementary.
“The evacuation plan work exactly as it’s expected to work,” said HRSB spokesperson Doug Hadley. “For most of the students they wouldn’t realize it was more than a drill, which they do practice.”
He said the John W. MacLeod students are dismissing for the day and they are in the process of contacting parents.
He added students can be picked up at Fleming Tower school, which will stay open.
Hadley said as long as they get the all-clear from police later today, students will be expected to be in class tomorrow morning.
