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Last updated on Tuesday, September 18, 2012
(BATON ROUGE, LA) - Students at Louisiana State University are gradually returning to campus after a bomb threat forced them to evacuate just before noon Monday.
All dorm facilities have been cleared and students have been given the green light to return to their rooms.
Students are being asked to restrict their on-campus traffic to cleared areas, which also include two dining halls and a rec center.
Col. Mike Edmonson with the Louisiana State Police called the effort to evacuate students, faculty and visitors "pretty phenomenal"and promised officers would find and prosecute the person who made the threat, which shut down classes for the entire day.
Visitors to the schools website on Monday were greeted by a red banner strip across the top of the page reading "A bomb threat has been reported on the LSU Campus. Please evacuate as calmly and quickly as possible. Check lsu.edu for updates. LSUEOC."
Students were notified by a central texting program that automatically alerts them to dangers on campus. The alert was sent at 11:32 a.m. CT.
"All #LSU classes, events canceled for today. Evacuation is still in effect," LSU tweeted.
"The decision had to be made to clearly protect those for whom we are responsible - our faculty, our staff, our students and those visiting our campus," said Dr. William Jenkins, interim president.
A police official told CNN that a SWAT team was sent to campus to assist with the evacuations, and that bomb sniffing dogs were deployed.
The Louisiana State Police told the Associated Press that authorities talked to officials in Texas, North Dakota and Ohio to see if there are any similarities to the threats received Friday.
Last week, the University of Texas in Austin, North Dakota State in Fargo and Hiram College in Hiram, OH, received bomb threats prompting all three campuses to be evacuated, but no explosives were found at the schools.
Sports reporters from WAFB were on campus waiting for a news conference by the football coach, Les Miles, when the alert was sent out.
WAFB reports that no specific location has been given in the threat or what part of campus was threatened.
LSU was founded in 1860 and has an enrollment of 27,992 students.
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