One day after multiple schools across the region received bomb threats, schools in Methuen and Tewksbury were also the target of threats.
Methuen High School was evacuated Wednesday after receiving a threat via email, according to Methuen Police. Officials said the email was sent to a teacher at around 9:30 a.m. and mentioned shooting police. It also specifically mentioned a pipe bomb.
"It’s crazy to think that somebody would want to bomb us," said one student after being evacuated.
As 2,000 students were evacuated from the high school, they were told to leave their backpacks outside of a nearby elementary school. Bomb-sniffing dogs were brought in to search the backpacks, which students later retrieved. The students remained at the elementary school until classes were officially canceled for the rest of the day
"There are no direct indications of danger to the students, faculty, or staff, and nothing dangerous has been located at this time," police said Wednesday afternoon.
Check out this scene in methuen after a bomb threat at the high school #7news pic.twitter.com/VayFOVjsZx
— Steve Cooper (@scooperon7) January 20, 2016
Officials also confirmed a report of an emailed threat at Tewksbury School. Police were on the scene but the school was not evacuated.
Tewksbury Assistant Superintendent of Schools Brenda Theriault-Regan released a statement Wednesday morning:
Similar to yesterday’s high school "threat", all of our schools have received an automated email "threat". In response to this email, the police have been notified and are dispatching an officer to each school. We have deployed our security team to the schools as well. A thorough search of each school will be conducted, while we stay in an internal lockdown. Please do not call or try to come to your child’s school; we will continue with the school day as usual and update you with more information as soon as we have it available.
The threat comes just one day after 15 communities received confirmed threats, prompting investigations by local, state, and federal authorities. The Massachusetts State Police released a statement in which they confirmed they received reports of threats in Groton, Weymouth, Taunton, Arlington, Plymouth, Waltham, Ayer, Tewksbury, Newton, Billerica, Swampscott, Boston, Kingston and Westford (Nashoba Valley Tech).
Schools also received threats on Friday. Those schools were in Falmouth, Bourne, Mashpee, Plymouth, Weymouth, Arlington, and Boston (Boston College High School).
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