Bomb Threat At Moscow's Bolshoi Theater Ruled False Alarm

Russia’s Emergency Services said a bomb threat at Moscow's famous Bolshoi Theater that forced the evacuation of thousands of people proved to be a false alarm.

Bomb threats on November 5 at the Metropol hotel and GUM department store on Red Square also proved to be hoaxes.

Three police teams with sniffer dogs searched the Bolshoi theater after more than 3,500 people had been evacuated due to the bomb scare.

Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated from schools, malls, theaters, universities, hotels, and government buildings in cities nationwide amid a wave of anonymous bomb threats that began on September 10.

Bombs have not been discovered in any of the cases.

Federal Security Service (FSB) Director Aleksandr Bortnikov said on October 5 that four Russian citizens suspected of organizing the wave of anonymous bomb threats had been identified.

Bortnikov said that the four suspects are living abroad and have accomplices inside Russia.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in September that the threats are "telephone terrorism" and that "all necessary measures are being taken" to find the perpetrators.

Based on reporting by Reuters and TASS